Africa is rapidly losing the plant diversity that underpins food security, climate resilience and rural livelihoods, according to new findings from the Third Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture.
The report, published by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), was presented during the Africa regional launch held in Nairobi on 12–13 February 2026. The event was co-hosted by FAO and the Center for International Forestry Research and World Agroforestry (CIFOR-ICRAF), bringing together policymakers, scientists and development partners to examine the growing risks to Africa’s plant genetic resources.
The report shows that crops, their varieties and wild relatives, as well as other wild plants harvested for food, are disappearing faster than they are being conserved. These resources are critical for helping agrifood systems — the ways food is produced, processed and consumed — adapt to climate change, which is increasingly expressed through erratic rainfall, droughts and extreme temperatures.
“This report shows clearly that Africa is losing plant genetic diversity at a pace that threatens food security, nutrition and the overall resilience of agrifood systems,” said Chikelu Mba, Deputy Director of FAO’s Plant Production and Protection Division.
“Crop diversity — including farmers’ varieties or landraces, wild food plants and the genetic relatives of major crops — is essential for developing progressively improved crop varieties needed to climate-proof the continent’s agrifood systems. Yet many of these resources are disappearing faster than they are being protected, meaning their inherent potential may never be fully realised — not for the current generation, and certainly not for those who come after us,” he added.
Across Africa, locally adapted crop varieties developed and passed down by farmers over generations — known scientifically as landraces — are steadily vanishing from farms. These include traditional varieties of staple crops such as sorghum, millet, yam, rice and cotton. Often better suited to local soils, climates and cultural preferences, many landraces are being replaced by commercial varieties that were not bred for Africa’s diverse agroecological conditions.
In sub-Saharan Africa alone, about 16 percent of more than 12,000 distinct locally adapted crop varieties recorded across 19 countries were found to be threatened. As droughts and heat intensify, the loss of these varieties narrows farmers’ options for coping with climate stress.
“Africa’s food security and nutrition depend on the widest possible diversity of crops, trees and wild plants that farmers and communities have relied on for generations,” said Éliane Ubalijoro, Chief Executive Officer of CIFOR-ICRAF. “As climate change accelerates, losing this diversity means losing the very options that allow agriculture to adapt.”
The report also highlights alarming declines in wild food plants, which provide essential nutrients and serve as safety nets during periods of food scarcity.
Species such as baobab, shea, marula, tamarind and African bush mango are under growing pressure, alongside indigenous leafy vegetables including amaranth, spider plant, African nightshade, cowpea leaves and jute mallow.
More than 70 percent of assessed wild food plant diversity in Africa is now threatened — double the global average — mainly due to habitat loss, land-use change and climate stress.
Similarly, crop wild relatives — wild plants related to major crops such as sorghum, millet, rice, yam and cowpea — are disappearing. These species contain traits for drought tolerance and resistance to pests and diseases that are vital for future crop improvement. The report finds that over 70 percent of assessed crop wild relatives in Africa are under threat, while African genebanks conserve only about 14 percent of those collected.
Extreme weather is accelerating these losses. Drought now accounts for nearly two-thirds of emergency seed interventions across Africa, with 110 responses recorded in 20 countries. While such interventions help farmers resume production, repeated emergencies can weaken local seed systems and displace locally adapted varieties.
Concerns also remain over the security of Africa’s seed collections. Around 220,000 seed samples from nearly 4,000 plant species are stored in 56 African genebanks, yet only about 10 percent are safely duplicated elsewhere, leaving them vulnerable to conflict, flooding and underinvestment.
“It is the responsibility of governments to establish genebanks and the infrastructure needed to store plant genetic resources,” said Theophilus Muturi, Managing Director of the Kenya Plant Health Inspectorate Service (KEPHIS).
Despite the risks, the report identifies opportunities for action. Several African countries are expanding breeding programmes for underutilised crops and strengthening seed systems. Ultimately, the findings call for urgent, coordinated investment to protect plant genetic diversity — a foundation for resilient agrifood systems in a changing climate.
