Conversations and initiatives that directly and indirectly address climate change are central to food systems transformation in Africa. Climate action is a core part of the African Food Fellowship’s promise and mission to create healthy, inclusive, and sustainable food systems.
We are proud to support food systems leaders in Africa whose work is front and centre of climate change mitigation and prevention. Through their food system actions, our Fellows are leading interventions designed to cut down on agricultural waste, recover soil fertility, boost indigenous knowledge and produce, and encourage mindful consumption, while also increasing farmers’ earnings and ending hunger.
Our call to action: At the African Food Fellowship, we know that collaborative leadership is essential to turn good intentions and ideas into action. An effective climate change response cannot be achieved by any one sector, not even agri-food systems, no matter how influential. Meaningful efforts therefore must include collaborating with leaders in other systems that affect climate, including logistics and transport, energy, manufacturing, and water. We are actively seeking partners in these ecosystems so that we can co-create more systemic solutions.
Q&A on Climate Change and Food Systems
A: Climate change is the most consequential threat facing food systems today, leading to poor agricultural productivity, increased hunger, reduced farmers’ livelihoods, and a depletion of earth’s resources. On the other hand, food systems are among the biggest causes of the climate crisis. Agriculture accounts for one third of greenhouse gas emissions that are responsible for global warming which leads to climate change. These gasses are emitted during every step of the agricultural value chain including land clearance for agriculture via deforestation and biomass fires, food production and processing including manufacturing and distribution, and finally, household consumption, including retail and disposal.
Greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. They trap heat and keep the earth warm enough to support life. However, increased human activities have led to increased emissions of these gases causing temperature and precipitation changes over a long period of time. This is the phenomenon known as climate change. Climate change disrupts agricultural production in the following ways: increased incidences of drought and flooding which hamper crop and livestock production; more occurrences and wider range of pests, diseases and weeds; accelerated spoilage and contamination of food; and soil erosion and biodiversity loss.
Despite the close relationship between food systems and climate change, countries have for a long time treated these issues separately instead of addressing their systemic linkages for a more efficient response. Recent discourse at international gatherings like the COP30 held in Brazil in November 2025 shows a growing recognition of the link between climate change and food systems, but decisive action is still out of sight. Governments seemed keen to reaffirm the need to integrate agrifood systems into adaptation plans but agrifood systems still receive less than 20% of adaptation finance, and food systems were substantially absent from the core negotiation text, which is a missed step toward systemic reform. Perhaps more importantly, even with good policies, implementation is uneven, meaning that for many countries, the status quo remains.
The Kampala CAADP Declaration comes into play in January 2026, with climate change mitigation making up one of the six core focus areas for Africa’s food systems in the next ten years. The declaration commits to have at least 30% of agricultural land under sustainable management and 40% of households protected from shocks by 2035. It aims to do this through strengthening human and technical capacities for research into climate change mitigation, mobilizing climate finance for farmers and promoting climate adaptation strategies in agri-food systems.
Climate change mitigation and adaptation require concerted action across public, private, and civil society entities at multiple levels and domains of governance. Food systems leadership programmes cultivate a mindset of systems thinking, collaboration, service, inclusion and adaptive problem-solving among their participants. They equip leaders to see beyond sectoral silos, recognize interconnections across agriculture and other sectors, and act strategically within complex, dynamic systems to create impact. Ultimately, food systems leadership is the much-needed catalyst that will turn the good ideas outlined in the Kampala CAADP Declaration and the COP30 Belem Package into action.
Conversations and initiatives that directly and indirectly address climate change are central to food systems transformation in Africa. Climate action is a core part of the African Food Fellowship’s promise and mission to create healthy, inclusive, and sustainable food systems.
We are proud to support food systems leaders in Africa whose work is front and centre of climate change mitigation and prevention. Through their food system actions, our Fellows are leading interventions designed to cut down on agricultural waste, recover soil fertility, boost indigenous knowledge and produce, and encourage mindful consumption, while also increasing farmers’ earnings and ending hunger.
