Africa’s agrifood system contributes nearly 2.9 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent emissions annually, representing over a quarter of the global agricultural sector’s carbon footprint. This staggering figure underscores the immense challenge the continent faces: how to feed a rapidly growing population without exacerbating climate change. A multilateral study, involving experts from the China Agricultural University and the Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, draws critical comparisons between Africa and China’s agricultural trajectories, offering nuanced strategies to enhance productivity while mitigating greenhouse gas emissions.
Africa is on the brink of a demographic explosion, with its population projected to soar to approximately 2.5 billion by 2050. This demographic shift places unprecedented pressure on agricultural systems to expand production sustainably. The continent’s agrifood emissions rose by about 40% between 2000 and 2021, increasing from 2.03 to 2.85 gigatonnes (Gt) of CO₂ equivalent. This uneven escalation reflects diverse regional dynamics, with East and Central Africa experiencing the highest growth rates due to cropland expansion and livestock intensification, while other areas saw more tempered increases linked to improved soil management and urban growth.
Central to Africa’s environmental balance is the Congo Basin, the world’s second-largest tropical rainforest and a crucial global carbon sink. Since the early 2000s, millions of hectares of primary rainforest have been lost, threatening both carbon sequestration potential and rural livelihoods dependent on forest ecosystems. The study emphasizes that protecting each hectare of forest preserved or developed without deforestation yields dual benefits, preserving climate functionality and sustaining local economies. Safeguarding these ecosystems is therefore vital in any agrifood strategy aimed at emission reductions.
The research stresses the plurality of Africa’s agricultural landscapes, cautioning against one-size-fits-all solutions. Variations in agroecological zones necessitate tailored approaches. For instance, halting deforestation and rehabilitating degraded landscapes is paramount in forested regions. In pastoral zones, improving ruminant health and nutrition can significantly curtail methane emissions. In rice-producing areas, water and nitrogen management practices can reduce methane production without sacrificing yields. Urban agricultural supply chains require modernization of post-harvest processing, transport, and marketing so that more of the farm output ultimately reaches consumers efficiently.
Among the top emissions sources, three stand out: deforestation, rice cultivation, and livestock enteric fermentation. In Central and West Africa, land-clearing for crops like cocoa and oil palm or for grazing drives significant CO₂ releases. Economic incentives for forest conservation—such as clarified land tenure, integrating agroforestry, and implementing zero-deforestation traceability in commodity chains—offer promising pathways to make forest protection a viable livelihood strategy for smallholders. Where these incentives are lacking, deforestation remains unbridled, intensifying carbon losses.
Flooded rice paddies emit significant methane due to anaerobic conditions in stagnant water. Adoption of Alternate Wetting and Drying (AWD) techniques, already validated in Asia and under trial in West Africa, alternates dry periods with flooding. This approach can yield up to a 47% reduction in methane emissions while preserving yield and reducing water usage by nearly 30%. For smallholder farmers, such water savings also decrease energy expended on irrigation, enhancing resilience amid increasing drought frequency.
Livestock, particularly ruminants, contribute to emissions through enteric fermentation, releasing methane as a byproduct of digestion. Improved livestock feeding strategies focusing on nitrogen-fixing legumes, complemented by mineral supplementation and animal health interventions such as deworming and hydration, improve feed conversion efficiency. These practices increase meat and milk yields per animal while cutting emissions intensity. Pilot projects in the Sahel and East Africa show strong adoption potential among pastoralist communities, often contending with climate stressors and resource conflicts.
Although technical practices to curb emissions are available, their success depends heavily on supportive institutional frameworks. Extension services delivering localized guidance, accessible rural credit lines, secured land rights, and robust market infrastructure are crucial. Absent these supports, environmentally friendly practices risk remaining marginal. When adequately backed by policy and finance, such measures can become widespread norms, enabling systemic transformation across agricultural landscapes.
Emissions embedded in agricultural systems extend well beyond the farm gate, encompassing input production, storage, processing, packaging, transportation, and waste management. Fertilizer manufacturing, particularly ammonia synthesis for nitrogen fertilizers, is energy-intensive, generating approximately 2.4 to 2.9 tonnes of CO₂ per tonne of ammonia produced. Addressing this requires both innovation in green chemical processes—leveraging renewable hydrogen and carbon capture—and precision nutrient management on farms to minimize excess application and enhance soil health.
Post-harvest losses represent a considerable but often overlooked emission source, with up to 20–30% of fruits, vegetables, and tubers wasted before reaching consumers. These losses equate to massive wasted energy and emissions associated with production. Emerging solutions such as solar-powered cold storage, improved packaging designs, field sorting, better road infrastructure, and real-time market data have demonstrated success. Nigerian initiatives like ColdHubs illustrate that reducing spoilage enhances farmers’ incomes and increases food safety while simultaneously shrinking the sector’s carbon footprint.
Transport logistics in Africa remain heavily dependent on trucking, which tends to be inefficient and carbon-intensive due to poor loading optimization and limited use of low-emission technologies. Improving freight efficiency by maximizing truck loads, minimizing empty return trips, upgrading refrigeration with better insulation and energy-efficient engines, and transitioning to electrified rail where feasible are imperative strategies. Measurement frameworks such as the Global Logistics Emissions Council (GLEC) provide vital tools for companies and policymakers to quantify and manage the emissions intensity of supply chains.
As more Africans shift towards urban centers, consumer food choices gain climate significance. Preferences for seasonal products, shorter supply chains, and less packaging can collectively lower the food system’s carbon footprint without undermining affordability or quality. Supporting enterprises that transparently report and seek to reduce their environmental impact empowers urban markets as levers for sustainable transformation. Heightened consumer awareness, therefore, becomes an indispensable driver of climate-smart food systems.
Public policies that integrate environmental objectives with agricultural development goals are emerging across the continent. Kenya’s 2022 fertilizer subsidy program, which uses e-voucher systems to improve targeting and transparency, exemplifies how policy can bolster productivity while embedding environmental constraints. South Africa’s Climate Change Act of 2024 introduces enforceable carbon budgets at sectoral levels, sends clear price signals via carbon taxation, and mandates adaptation strategies. Regional initiatives such as AFR100 mobilize more than thirty nations toward restoring 100 million hectares by 2030, reflecting a collective ambition to rehabilitate landscapes and promote sustainable agriculture.
Mobilizing finance remains the overarching bottleneck. Agriculture and land use adaption and mitigation demand upwards of USD 50 billion annually by 2030. Scalable projects—ranging from AWD rice systems and solar-powered cooling chains to organic fertilization, landscape restoration, and supply chain decarbonization—must demonstrate verifiable outcomes. Metrics that encompass emissions reductions, yield improvements, loss prevention, job creation, and social inclusion foster investor confidence and ensure that climate and development goals align.
Scaling solutions to cover at least 20% of family farms is an achievable yet ambitious target. Realizing this requires comprehensive training programs for extension agents, bespoke financial products with repayment schedules tuned to agricultural cycles, secure land tenure systems, and market mechanisms that reward low-carbon production quality. Achieving these conditions would catalyze significant short-term climate mitigation with enduring co-benefits for nutrition, resilience to climate shocks, and soil integrity.
In conclusion, the dual imperatives of feeding Africa’s expanding population and mitigating climate change are not mutually exclusive. By coherently combining progressive public policies, agronomic innovation, and chain-wide strategic modernization, the continent can decelerate its agrifood system emissions trajectory while improving health, livelihoods, and food security. The blueprint is clear, and the tools exist, but urgent collective action by governments, researchers, communities, producers, businesses, funders, and consumers is essential to realize this vision.
Subject of Research: Agrifood system carbon emissions and reduction strategies in Africa, with comparative insights from China
Article Title: Agrifood system carbon emissions and reduction policy: insights from China and Africa
News Publication Date: 2025
Web References:
https://journal.hep.com.cn/fase/EN/10.15302/J-FASE-2025609
References:
Li, X., Zhang, Y., Fan, S., & Ouedraogo, I. (2025). Agrifood system carbon emissions and reduction policy: insights from China and Africa. Frontiers in Agricultural Science & Engineering, 12.
Image Credits:
Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT
Keywords:
Agrifood emissions, Africa agriculture, carbon footprint, deforestation, methane mitigation, Alternate Wetting and Drying, livestock emissions, fertilizer impacts, post-harvest loss, sustainable supply chains, climate-smart agriculture, landscape restoration
