Yurdi Yasmi, FAO’s Director of Plant Production and Protection
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) is sounding alarm over the accelerated depletion of Africa’s crop diversity.
In a joint statement by Yurdi Yasmi, FAO’s Director of Plant Production and Protection, and Abebe Haile-Gabriel, FAO Assistant Director-General and Regional Representative for Africa, officials warned that the continent is losing the genetic foundation of its food security, describing the situation as a “silent crisis”.
According to these FAO officials, the trend is mainly driven by climate change and modern farming methods eroding traditional seed varieties, and that could have irreversible consequences for Africa’s future food systems.
“Africa’s plant genetic resources are the foundation of its future food security,” said the joint statement. “They hold the keys to adapting agriculture to climate change, improving nutrition, and safeguarding livelihoods. But without sustained investment, this biodiversity will vanish silently and irreversibly.”
The Third Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture (PGRFA, 2025) more than 70 per cent of Africa’s crop wild relatives and wild food plant diversity are now threatened, twice the global average.
The statement mentions that droughts alone account for 65 per cent of seed emergencies across 20 African countries, wiping out local varieties that had for generations sustained communities during harsh seasons. “Sub-Saharan Africa has already lost 16 per cent of the 12,000 documented farmers’ varieties and landraces, with staple crops such as rice, cotton, yam, sorghum, and millet most affected,” it emphasized.
They further warn that as the continent warms faster than the global average, the loss of genetic diversity will reduce its ability to adapt to environmental shocks, undermine food sovereignty, and increase dependence on imported seeds.
The statement says African scientists are taking steps to integrate conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources. About 44 per cent of the continent’s germ-plasm accessions have been characterized, above the global average.
But most breeding programs continue to rely on traditional methods instead of modern molecular tools that could help develop more nutritious and resilient varieties.
Across Africa, initiatives to promote indigenous and underutilized crops such as Moringa, Amaranth, and African eggplant show promise, but FAO warns that such projects remain underfunded and fragmented.
The officials highlighted a capacity crisis, with only five sub-Saharan countries having national plant genetic resource strategies. “Across the region, 27 per cent of countries lack postgraduate training programs in plant genetic resources, while nearly two-thirds do not offer relevant secondary-level education,” reads the statement.
“Without investing in a new generation of plant geneticists and conservation scientists, Africa will not have the human capital to sustain its food systems,” said Abebe Haile-Gabriel. FAO is urging African governments, donors, and research institutions to prioritize investment in cryopreservation, seed regeneration, and safety duplication, as well as the establishment of national and regional plant genetic resource strategies.
This should be combined with better coordination between farmers, gene banks, and community seed systems, and a stronger education program to build capacity for conservation and breeding.
“The seeds of Africa’s future are literally slipping through its fingers,” said t statement. “The question is whether the continent, and the world, will act before they are gone forever.”
According to them, the erosion of crop diversity poses a direct threat to Africa’s food sovereignty. African farmers have always cultivated a wide range of crops suited to local conditions; however, this is being gradually abandoned due to commercial farming and imported seeds.
Globally, just nine crops account for over two-thirds of the world’s calorie intake, according to FAO. Uganda and other African nations are now under pressure to protect their remaining plant genetic heritage, not only to preserve culture and nutrition but to ensure future generations can grow food in an increasingly unpredictable climate
Africa currently maintains 56 gene banks, holding about 220,000 plant samples from nearly 4,000 species. FAO notes that only 10 per cent of these collections are safely duplicated, leaving irreplaceable genetic material at risk from natural disasters or political instability. Wild relatives and wild food plants, which contain genes that can help crops tolerate droughts, pests, and salinity, make up only 14 per cent and 7 per cent of collections, respectively.
Uganda, known for its rich variety of beans, bananas, sorghum, and millet, faces the same threats. Many of the local crop varieties that have adapted to changing soils and weather conditions are slowly disappearing as farmers shift to commercial hybrid seeds or lose traditional seed systems to droughts and floods.
The National Agricultural Research Organisation (NARO) has, in recent years, stepped up efforts to document and conserve indigenous crops through gene banks and community seed projects. However, experts say much of Uganda’s plant genetic diversity remains undocumented and vulnerable.
NARO’s gene bank at the National Agricultural Genetic Resources Centre and Databank in Entebbe holds a large collection of indigenous seeds. However, funding constraints and limited technical capacity continue to slow efforts to expand and duplicate these resources.
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