World Bank Group President Ajay Banga has called for a global transformation of agriculture into a driver of jobs, income, and food security, saying the sector could hold the key to lifting millions out of poverty while feeding a growing world population.
Speaking at the AgriConnect Flagship Event during the World Bank and IMF Annual Meetings, Banga said the challenge is no longer just about growing more food but about “turning that growth into a business that produces higher incomes for smallholder farmers and more opportunity across entire economies.”
“Over the next 10 to 15 years, about 1.2 billion young people in developing countries will come of age,” Banga noted. “But current trends suggest only 400 million jobs will be created. That delta—hundreds of millions—will either power the global economy or spill over into unrest and migration.”
The World Bank Group, he said, has made job creation its central mission, with a focus on five key sectors: infrastructure, agribusiness, healthcare, tourism, and value-added manufacturing.
Agriculture, however, stands at the heart of that effort. Emerging markets, particularly in Africa and Asia, possess what Banga described as the “ingredients” for agricultural transformation—land, water, sunlight, and a young labor force.
Africa alone holds 60% of the world’s uncultivated arable land, while Asia’s smallholder farmers already manage most of the continent’s farmland. Yet, most remain trapped in subsistence farming, with fewer than one in ten having access to commercial finance.
“The opportunity has been there for decades,” Banga said. “What’s changing is our ability to organize at scale—to shape the future of food security, nutrition, growth, and employment.”
To that end, the World Bank Group is doubling down on its agribusiness commitments, aiming to invest $9 billion annually by 2030, with an additional $5 billion mobilized from private and development partners. The strategy focuses on helping smallholders raise productivity, integrate into structured value chains, and protect their livelihoods through credit, insurance, and fair market access.
The approach also emphasizes resilience and digital integration—from heat-tolerant seeds and efficient irrigation to mobile AI tools that diagnose crop diseases, guide fertilizer use, and facilitate digital payments.
“Digital is the glue that holds the system together,” Banga said. “The data trail becomes a credit history; better underwriting lowers the cost of capital; lower costs draw in more lenders. That is the virtuous loop we are building.”
He cited a successful pilot in India’s Uttar Pradesh, where a combination of digital tools, cooperatives, and infrastructure upgrades significantly improved farmer incomes and productivity.
Banga urged governments, businesses, and development partners to “row in the same direction,” stressing that agriculture’s potential will only be realized through coordinated efforts to improve infrastructure, clarify land tenure, and build farmer organizations that link smallholders to suppliers and markets.
“This isn’t theory,” he said. “It works, and it scales.”
The World Bank’s renewed focus on agriculture comes amid mounting global pressure to feed a population projected to reach 9.7 billion by 2050, while addressing youth unemployment, climate shocks, and rural poverty—issues that are deeply intertwined across the developing world.
