African food systems face daunting challenges in the face of climate change. They must ensure fair access to food for residents of Africa’s growing cities and create decent jobs where workers and small businesses get a fair share of earnings. Food systems must also mitigate the environmental problems they cause, such as biodiversity loss, soil degradation and greenhouse gas emissions.
The G20 is one forum that is looking into policies that could ensure that food systems provide good food for all, are less destructive to the environment and are resilient to climate change.
The G20 is a group of 19 of the world’s largest economies, the European Union and the African Union. South Africa is president of the grouping in 2025 and is currently researching the impact of global trade on food prices – and how to prevent food price spikes.
In an early concept note, the G20 expressed support for “agroecology”. This is a movement, science and way to provide food fairly and in a manner that works with nature.
Many people think agroecology is only about small farmers growing food for local sale and consumption. Advocates of mechanised, highly commercial farming even frame agroecology as backward, unsophisticated, and unable to produce the large amounts of food needed to feed the world.
Agroecology therefore seems at odds with the G20 focus on regional and global food trade. A more recent G20 concept note dropped agroecology in favour of promoting free trade of food, and adapting commercial farming to climate change (by introducing climate-smart agricultural practices).
We are researchers with the African Food Systems Transformation Collective, a group of African experts who identify strategies to shift food systems towards health, justice, sustainability and resilience.
We argue that South Africa’s G20 presidency must shift the world’s focus away from a free trade food system. More than 384 million people in Africa live in hunger. Even if making the current, commercialised food system “climate-smart” might increase production, it will likely worsen inequalities. That is why simply producing more food does not fix hunger. Agriculture needs to be deeply transformed – along with processing, packaging, distribution and sales of food.
The G20 is also considering ways to create “regional food baskets” by improving trade between African countries. Based on our research, we believe agroecological transitions in African cities can be sped up if the current trade regimes in Africa are reformed and reoriented and if competition is better regulated.
Where African food trade is going wrong
Trade is not only important to feed rapidly growing urban populations. It can make sure that reliable food supplies are available across a region, even when climate change disasters like drought or floods wipe out production in one country.
Improving regional trade in food could also open up new global and regional markets for African smallholder farmers.
Currently, food trade in Africa is very difficult. The number of documents and certificates required makes food trade across borders complex, costly and burdensome. Different technical regulations and rules for certification, testing, and inspection hinder trade between African countries.
African countries have also not managed to align food trade policies and standards across the continent. European Union regulations managing the safety, hygiene and contamination of food products also pose hurdles for African goods.
African countries also impose high duties on trade with each other. African intra-continental agricultural goods tariffs are among the highest globally.
These problems are particularly discouraging to smaller enterprises which don’t have the administrative and legal capacity to comply with complicated regulations and procedures.
By hindering the movement of goods and increasing the costs of selling food across borders, food insecurity increases in Africa.
Poor transport infrastructure, and monopolies and cartels in the food sector mean that markets don’t balance supply and demand efficiently. For example, the current system makes it possible for a few companies to collude and set artificially high prices for fertiliser and poultry feed. This allows the cartels to make excessive profits, increasing the cost of food for poor consumers who can least afford it.
Many African countries lack the resources and capacity to monitor commodity markets and to enforce regulation. This worsens price instability, exposing consumers to sudden price hikes. Food prices become high and unstable.
What South Africa’s G20 presidency needs to do next
South Africa’s G20 should push for specific actions:
1.) Include agroecological principles in trade regimes such as the African Continental Free Trade Area. Its main focus is on reducing trade barriers and promoting trade, but it does not serve smaller local food businesses well.
2.) Trade in food must be made more accessible for smallholder farmers and small to medium enterprises. African countries need to develop ways to link these businesses with markets. They must improve the infrastructure needed to grade and gather produce into large batches, as well as to warehouse and transport it.
3.) Small food producers must be invited to influence regional trade policy. Rules should be simplified to make it easier for small-to-medium businesses to sell products regionally. This includes doing away with unnecessary taxes and paperwork.
4.) It is also essential that governments in Africa build the capacity and political will to crack down on big companies and cartels that fix prices unfairly. For example, the African Market Observatory monitors prices along supply chains within and across countries in east and southern Africa. Expanding the reach and capacity of initiatives like this could help challenge cartels’ abuse of market power.
5.) New trade deals must actively support regional agroecological value chains. These include food suppliers, farms, as well as the companies that process and distribute food.
6.) Harmonised regulations should promote trade of food commodities certified by farmer-led participatory guarantee schemes. These systems enable farmers and other people in the food industry to confirm the environmentally friendly production and quality standards of fruit and crops. Innovative smartphone technology must also be made more available so that agroecological product standards can be traced from farm to fork.
Simply removing trade barriers will not transform the way food is grown and traded in Africa. In fact, relaxing trade rules could allow big food businesses to get bigger and more powerful and make the food system more vulnerable to crises. Food systems concentration would intensify, undermining small food enterprises.
If industrial agribusinesses continue to dominate food systems policy discussions, they also get to influence policies and institutions in their favour.
The G20 must recognise agroecology as key to stabilising prices, growing regional food baskets, building resilience, and cultivating sustainable food production.
Professor Kenneth Odero (ClimateXL Africa, Zimbabwe), Joshua Ndong’a Kamelu (National Economic Advisory Council, Zambia) and Oluwaseyi Ifelaja (Center for Food Safety and Agricultural Research and British-Canadian University, Nigeria) co-authored this article.
Florian Kroll receives funding from the DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security. He helps convene and co-ordinate the African Food Systems Transformation Collective.
Albert Makochekanwa does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
By Florian Kroll, Researcher: DSTI-NRF Centre of Excellence in Food Security, University of the Western Cape And
Albert Makochekanwa, Director – University of Zimbabwe Business School, University of Zimbabwe
