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Africa’s agrifood challenge is often framed as a production problem: raise yields, expand cultivated area and produce more food. But what happens when increased production encounters weak processing capacity, poor storage, inconsistent quality, fragmented markets or inadequate seed systems? Evidence from Ghana and Malawi suggests that producing more is only part of the answer. Productivity is necessary but not sufficient for agrifood transformation.
This was a central message emerging from the concluding session of the 2026 ANAPRI Brownbag Seminar Series, convened by ANAPRI in partnership with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Bureau for Food and Agricultural Policy (BFAP). Drawing on Policy Prioritisation through Value Chain Analysis (PPVC), the session examined Ghana’s tomato and rice value chains and Malawi’s banana sector to explore where policy and investment can unlock greater value.
Producing more does not automatically mean importing less
Ghana’s tomato sector illustrates the challenge. Domestic demand continues to grow, yet supply remains volatile, and imports help bridge persistent gaps. Post-harvest losses and deterioration, inadequate storage and limited processing capacity mean that some of the value created through production is lost before reaching consumers. Whereas productivity-focused interventions can increase output, improvements beyond the farm can be particularly important for reducing import dependence.
Investments considered included solar-powered community irrigation, research and development for disease-resistant varieties, decentralised cottage processing, packhouses, cold storage and improved produce handling. Taken together, these interventions demonstrate the importance of looking beyond production to the wider system through which agricultural products are processed, preserved and brought to market.
Quality matters as much as quantity
Rapidly growing demand for rice in Ghana is exposing constraints that extend well beyond production. Per capita consumption has doubled over the past two decades, while domestic production growth has not kept pace, resulting in the country’s increased reliance on imports. Also, domestic consumers prefer imported rice due to perceived higher quality. The challenge, therefore, is not simply how much paddy farmers produce, but whether domestic value chains can process and deliver rice at the quality consumers demand.
Small-scale mills account for much of the country’s processing capacity but operate below their potential and deliver rice that often struggles to meet consumer quality preferences for consistently clean, well-polished grain. A package of interventions, including enhancing access to certified seed, complementary inputs such as balanced fertilizer blends, increased investments in irrigation, and quality-based grading and pricing, storage and mechanisation will result in stronger results compared with isolated interventions. There is huge potential to attain self-sufficiency by 2035 with substantial gains in agrifood-system GDP, employment and poverty reduction.
Rebounding from catastrophic shock
Malawi’s banana sector demonstrates that transformation may need to begin even further upstream. Following the Banana Bunchy Top Virus (BBTV) outbreak that almost wiped out banana plantations. Output is rebounding, although it is still off the peak before the shock. The current growth trajectory relies on effective seed systems aimed at replacing susceptible varieties.
A combination of virus-indexed certified planting material, community nurseries, irrigation finance and extension support to help farmers transition towards more structured orchard production creates a viable and sustainable pathway to this goal. The objective is to encourage the government and its partners to tackle this bundle of interventions jointly rather than treating them separately, to maximise economy-wide and poverty-reduction effects.
Importantly, understanding trade-offs is critical to ensure impact. For instance, expanding banana production creates competition for land and labour with other agricultural activities. As such, agricultural investment choices need to be assessed beyond their immediate effects on a single commodity.
From isolated interventions to complementary policy packages
Across the three cases, a common lesson emerges: agricultural value chains function as systems, and policy needs to recognise their interdependencies. Irrigation without functioning markets may increase seasonal surpluses; higher yields without storage can magnify losses; better production without processing may fail to meet consumer preferences; and processing investment without reliable supplies can leave facilities underutilised.
Public policy therefore needs to identify combinations of interventions that address binding constraints across the value chain while creating conditions for private investment. This is especially important where public resources are limited. Governments cannot finance every desirable intervention. Understanding how to combine investments and reforms, while building the partnerships needed to implement them, can help generate greater value from scarce public resources.
The Ghana and Malawi cases point towards a shift from production-led interventions to value-chain-wide policy prioritisation—connecting productivity with quality, processing, infrastructure, market incentives and private-sector participation. Africa’s agrifood transformation will ultimately require more than producing more. It will depend on ensuring that what is produced can move efficiently from farms to markets, meet consumer expectations, attract investment and create value throughout the economy.