Africa won't transform food systems without investing in water

Maize under irrigation at Nyumba Agri Farm in Galana-Kulalu in Kilifi County. [Robert Menza]

African leaders, policymakers, farmers, financiers and development partners will convene in Kigali, Rwanda, on August 31 for The Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 to grapple with an age-old question: How will the African continent produce more food, create more jobs and build resilience in a rapidly changing world rife with climate risk, population increase and rising urbanisation?

Too often, water is treated as a secondary issue in Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda; something for the water sector to address while agriculture, finance and trade pursue their own priorities. This must change.

Around 90 per cent of cultivated land in sub-Saharan Africa is rainfed, compared with 37 per cent in Asia. Only about 6 per cent is irrigated. For millions of farmers, late rainfall, a failed rainy season or devastating flood can determine whether a harvest becomes food and income—or debt and loss. This is not simply a problem of too little water but one of insufficient investment in managing the water we have.

Africa’s food systems cannot become resilient if its water systems remain fragile. We cannot sustainably grow agricultural economies while leaving farmers exposed to every rainfall shock. And we cannot seriously plan to feed 2.5 billion people by 2050 without securing the water needed to produce that food.

Across Africa, however, examples of what better water management can achieve abound. In Kenya, farmer-led irrigation and solar-powered pumps are helping smallholders overcome rainfall limitations. Kenya’s pay-as-you-go solar-pump market exceeded US$38 million in 2023, demonstrating farmers’ willingness to invest when appropriate technologies and financing are available.

Further east in Rwanda, women manage 35 per cent of farmer-led irrigation development plots where factors like access to land and credit are met, and the Hinga Wunguke scheme has linked women irrigators to digital marketplaces, cutting post-harvest losses by 15 per cent.

In Ghana, digital irrigation advisories have simultaneously reduced water use and increased tomato yields. In Morocco, modernising irrigation schemes has increased water productivity, while watershed rehabilitation across Africa has restored millions of hectares and, in some locations, significantly increased yields.

Senegal offers a crucial lesson on why water and agriculture investments should not be designed as separate agendas. It has linked irrigation expansion directly with its agricultural investment programme, creating a single pipeline connecting water, food production and markets. 

These examples point to a bigger opportunity. Africa does not need to choose between food security, jobs and climate resilience. Properly managed water can advance all three. But this requires a different investment approach.

We need to modernise existing irrigation schemes before automatically building new ones. We must expand farmer-led solar irrigation while protecting groundwater. We have to restore watersheds so that rain becomes an asset rather than a hazard. And we need robust hydrological monitoring and early-warning systems so farmers and governments can act before drought becomes disaster.

Investment must also be inclusive. Women control less than 15 per cent of Africa’s irrigated land, while irrigation loans account for less than three per cent of commercial bank lending portfolios. If women and young people are expected to drive agricultural transformation, they must have meaningful access to land, water, finance, technology and markets.

The timing is right. New financing initiatives by development partners and the private sector are creating opportunities to connect investments in water security with agricultural productivity and smallholder transformation.

The solutions are clear. What is missing is the scale, coordination and persistence of investment in water.

Dr Olufunke Cofie is the Africa Director for Research Impact at International Water Management Institute (IWMI)