The financialization of African agriculture is progressing with the entry of investment funds, insurers, and financial products dedicated to agricultural value chains. Mechanisms such as structured credit, index-linked insurance, and crop-backed financing are expanding access to capital for some farms and agribusinesses. According to the African Development Bank, private financing directed toward agriculture and agribusiness reached an average of over $15 billion per year between 2022 and 2024, compared to less than $8 billion in the early 2010s. This development responds to modernization needs in a sector that still employs nearly 60% of the working population in sub-Saharan Africa.

This dynamic improves climate and price risk management for those actors able to access it. Agricultural insurance, still limited, now covers approximately 4% of the continent's cultivated land, compared to less than 1% ten years earlier, according to World Bank estimates published in 2024. Financial instruments also help smooth incomes and facilitate investment in irrigation, storage, and improved inputs. However, these tools remain largely concentrated on export sectors and medium-sized or large farms, leaving out the majority of small family producers.

The central challenge, therefore, lies in ensuring the inclusivity of this financialization. Nearly 70% of African farms are less than 2 hectares and often operate outside formal financial channels. Without support mechanisms, the growing influence of financial actors can exacerbate inequalities in access to land, credit, and markets. The most balanced experiences are based on cooperatives, public agricultural banks, or risk-sharing arrangements involving both the state and the private sector. Financialization can become a lever for productive transformation if it adapts to local realities and supports existing agricultural models rather than marginalizing them.