The first Africa Conference on Sustainable Agricultural Mechanisation (ACSAM) that took place in Tanzania earlier this month ended with a strong call to drive action on smart and inclusive farming across the continent, encompassing agricultural mechanisation and digital innovations.
The conference, organised by the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) in collaboration with the African Union and hosted by the Republic of Tanzania, brought together governments, farmers’ organisations, youth and women’s groups, the private sector and development partners from across the continent who spent four days deliberating on how to speed up Africa’s agriculture mechanisation agenda.
The meeting, which ran from February 3 to 6, sought to address Africa lagging agriculture mechanisation, which — at a measly five per cent — means the continent’s farming is still largely dependent on manual labour.
It was noted that across the African continent, demand for mechanisation is on the rise as individual countries pursue agrifood systems transformation, climate resilience, and rural prosperity. However high machinery costs, weak distribution networks, limited after-sales services, and skills shortages were noted as some of the factors that continue to retard progress. It was highlighted that addressing these constraints requires integrated solutions that connect innovation, manufacturing, skills, finance, and policy into a coherent system.
According to Nels Schulz of the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO)’s Agro-Innovation and Bioeconomy Unit, only nine of Africa’s 54 countries consistently report data on machinery production. He said this lack of reporting reflects that agricultural machinery manufacturing remains weak across much of the continent.
The trade data shared by Schulz shows that globally, around $96 billion worth of agricultural machinery is traded annually, yet Africa accounts for only about three per cent of global imports, despite being home to about 20 per cent of the global population. While imports into Africa have shown some recovery since the disruptions of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was observed that the overall share remains small. The trade data showed that West Africa leads machinery imports on the continent, while countries such as South Africa, Morocco, Tanzania, and Zambia emerge as major entry points. On the supply side, the European Union remains the dominant exporter, with Germany and China close behind, followed by the United States, Brazil, India, and Turkey. What remains largely missing from the picture is strong local production, assembly, and value addition within Africa itself.
Schulz said strengthening of mechanisation in Africa is inseparable from building sustainable industrial capacity. He warned that without deeper integration into global and regional value chains and without better data to guide decisions, Africa’s mechanisation efforts risk remaining dependent, fragmented, and vulnerable to external shocks.
The 500 in-person delegates and over 1,000 online participants representing African governments and agriculture stakeholders came up with a ten-point action plan that reflects a clear shift from dialogue to delivery and is aimed at accelerating technology-led farming that is inclusive, practical and adapted to African realities.
Among others, these actions include expanding tailored financing and investment mechanisms, strengthening mechanisation service provision ecosystems; promoting viable, service-based and shared-use mechanisation business models; accelerating digital transformation; mainstreaming youth and women’s access to mechanisation services; and advancing demand-driven and context-adapted research and innovation.
“These ten actions are not aspirational,” said FAO Policy Officer Mark Fynn during the conference’s closing ceremony. “They reflect shared direction and practical readiness to act.”
“We have reaffirmed that mechanisation is not just about machines, it is about systems that work,” said FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa Abebe Haile-Gabriel.
Other speakers on the closing day underscored that Africa is ready to move forward with turning smart and inclusive farming into real impact on the ground.
“We must work together to ensure the outcomes of this conference translate into tangible impacts for farmers,” said Babafemi Oyewole, Chief Executive Officer of the Pan African Farmers Organization (PAFO), a representative group of over 100 million African farmers.
Rose Wangithi, from the Consortium of African Youth in Agriculture and Climate Change (CAYACC), said African countries should move beyond pilots and to provide ecosystems of support for young agri-tech entrepreneurs.
Youths are key to Africa’s future as 60 per cent of the continent’s 1,5 billion people are below the age of 25.
“Young people are already contributing solutions, and this is an invitation to invest in youth, not as beneficiaries but as partners,” she said.
Emphasising the need to go beyond just tractors, the conference highlighted innovations such as GPS-guided drones, autonomous feeding systems that use sensors, artificial intelligence-supported advisory services and big data platforms to support decision-making. Together, these solutions can raise productivity, reduce losses, cut drudgery and create new jobs across Africa’s agri-food systems.
The outcomes of the conference, which was running under the theme, “Innovate, Transform, Sustain,” will also help shape FAO’s Global Conference on Smart Farming to be held in Rome in July.