World Bank charts course for agribusiness growth amid looming food demand surge

Onome Amuge

Ajay Banga, president, World Bank Group 

The agribusiness sector, despite its vital role in shaping the future of food security, nutrition, economic growth, and employment, has been frequently hampered by challenges that have obstructed its ability to reach its full potential, according to recent analysis by the World Bank.

This hurdle is especially pressing given the World Bank’s projection that global food demand will increase by 50 to 60 percent in the coming decades.

Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank Group,  in his address at the Agriculture Flagship Event during the World Bank Group 2024 Annual meetings in Washington, DC, underlined the challenges that the agricultural sector faces, including how to increase food production, boost productivity, address water scarcity, and solve the issues associated with fertilisers, infrastructure, and financing.

Banga identified four major shifts that call for a new approach for the World Bank Group in the agriculture sector, specifically that agriculture is highly vulnerable to climate change while being a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, yet it receives a small portion (4%) of global climate finance.

The World Bank president identified the potential for leveraging additional climate finance resources to support climate-smart agriculture, which would not only increase productivity but also lower greenhouse gas emissions.

According to Banga, risk-mitigating tools have enabled private capital to flow more easily into the agricultural sector, such as credit guarantees, first-loss facilities, and insurance instruments that help make lending more secure and commercially viable.

He noted that, when combined with policy and regulatory reforms from the public sector, these financial tools can foster a favourable environment for private investors, thereby facilitating increased investment in the agriculture sector and supporting its growth and development.

Banga pointed out that, in the past, reaching individual farmers has been challenging for fintechs and commercial banks, but the recent advances in digitalisation and new digital tools have made it easier to aggregate farmers, enabling them to connect with buyers, financial services, and innovative technologies that can boost productivity.

He noted that these tools also create a digital footprint, which allows farmers to establish credit histories, significantly reducing the cost of delivering financial services by up to 90 percent.

Banga added that, historically, a significant portion of agribusiness financing has been sourced from large food companies and traders, often operating in isolation, which has resulted in inefficiencies and fragmentation, leaving smallholder farmers out of the equation.

However, he stated that by working with farmer associations and producer organisations, it is possible to move beyond these historical challenges, creating a more inclusive and efficient system that benefits both large and small farmers.

According to Ajay Banga, these emerging shifts in the agriculture sector represent a fundamental transformation that will reshape the landscape of agribusiness, coming at a critical time when global food demand is projected to increase by 50 to 60 percent over the next few decades.

“This strategic pivot is made possible because of the work we have done over the past 16 months to become a better, simpler, more coordinated institution. It moves us beyond fragmented efforts to a constellation of solutions that includes everything from warehousing to logistics to production, but with smallholder farmers and producer organizations at the center”.

“We are combining a new way of working with a new level of investment, doubling our agri-finance and agribusiness commitments to $9 billion annually by 2030,” he stated.

Banga outlined the World Bank’s multi-pronged strategy for supporting the agricultural sector, highlighting the complementary roles of the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD) and International Development Association (IDA) in building the capacity and services of the public sector, as well as  the roles of the International Finance Corporation (IFC) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency ( MIGA) in providing financing and access to the private sector.

He explained that this comprehensive approach is designed to create tangible changes that will be felt by both business and government partners, with a goal of increasing mobilisation to $5 billion.

“We cannot predetermine these interventions universally. But with a World Bank Group ecosystem approach, we will be able to identify and address any number of barriers to build opportunity. The effort to transform agribusiness is not only about securing the food systems of tomorrow, it is fundamentally a jobs initiative,” he stated.

Banga emphasised that, in the next decade, an estimated 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will enter the workforce, but only 420 million jobs are projected to be available, leaving almost 800 million without a clear path to employment.

The World Bank president described the world at a critical crossroads, where the current generation of young people can either shape a brighter future or present a significant challenge if they face rampant unemployment, leading to increased migration, social unrest, and disillusionment.

Against this backdrop, he noted that the World Bank’s strategic shift in its approach to agribusiness aims to unlock the path to a more positive future, providing quality of life and job opportunities for millions of people.

According to Banga, improved agricultural productivity can enhance the quality of life for millions of people.

He explained that climate-smart production practices not only reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve air quality, but also increase incomes, enabling investments in critical infrastructure like clean water.

In turn, this creates a virtuous cycle where higher incomes lead to healthier diets, which results in healthier children, who are better equipped to succeed in education, breaking the cycle of poverty and enhancing the future prospects of entire communities.

Banga concluded by highlighting the significance of the choices made today in shaping the future, stating that by transforming agriculture and agribusiness, the world could create a more resilient and sustainable food system, improving the lives of millions and providing the employment opportunities needed for a more stable and prosperous future.