AFCON 2025: Football, Agriculture, and the Race to Africa’s Nutrition Goalpost
On a warm evening in the ongoing Africa Cup of Nations championships in Morocco, a teenager from Comoros stood on the same pitch as some of Africa’s biggest football names. Back home, his village has one dusty field and one goal post that leans a little to the left. Yet there he was holding his own at AFCON. It felt like a small miracle but was not luck. It was the quiet power of years of training and parents who supported him so he could go play.
AFCON this year has been full of those moments. Tanzania has looked fearless and Mozambique refused to be intimidated. These teams are not accidents but solid proof that when you invest patiently in the basics, talent finds a way to shine. That is a lesson that should ring loudly far beyond the stadium and TV screens.
Because Africa faces a similar test in agriculture. We have the land, people and good climate. Yet too many of our children still go to bed hungry and many farmers struggle to make a living. Just as raw football talent does not guarantee trophies, fertile soil alone does not guarantee prosperity. What makes the difference is the system built around it.
Morocco offers a striking parallel. On the pitch its national teams and academies are now among the best in Africa. Off the pitch its farms and food factories tell a similar story. Two decades ago, Morocco decided to take agriculture seriously. It invested in research, in quality seed, in irrigation, in storage, and in markets that could connect farmers to buyers. Today agriculture is a major export earner and food processing is a strong pillar of the economy. None of this happened overnight but was the result of steady, patient planning much like building a winning football squad.
Walk through a football academy in Rabat and you will notice something else that matters. Nutrition is part of training. Young players are taught what to eat, how to recover, and how food fuels performance. Coaches know that no number of drills can make up for a body that is undernourished. This is where Africa’s bigger challenge comes into focus.
Across the continent some of our brightest athletic stars come from communities where meals are uncertain. Many of our children grow up stunted not because they lack ambition but because they lack protein, iron and a balanced diet in their early years. A stunted child may never reach full physical or cognitive potential. That is a tragedy not just for sport but for the economy and for society.
Brazil learned this lesson years ago, when alongside its football culture, it invested in programs that ensured poor families could feed and school their children. The result was not only better athletes but healthier more productive citizens. Africa needs a similar commitment. Imagine what could happen if every child in a farming village had access to safe nutritious food from infancy. The impact would echo in classrooms, hospitals, offices, and yes on athletic tracks and football fields too.
The connection between food and performance is personal for many of our athletes. One former East African striker once told me how he used to train on an empty stomach. His speed was there but his strength came late because his body had been undernourished as a boy. Though he still made it, many just as talented never do. The same story plays out quietly on our farms. Millions of farmers have the drive and the skill but lack the inputs, the finance and the markets that would let them thrive.
Just as football scouts look for raw talent, agriculture needs scouts too. We need extension officers who can help farmers improve yields, seed companies that deliver quality and banks that see farmers as entrepreneurs not risks. In Tanzania some local banks are stepping up and have started backing agribusinesses linked to strong value chains. In Uganda finance is flowing into processing and storage, making the first steps of the transformation.
Football analysis is famously candid. Commentators dissect tactical errors, highlight systemic weaknesses, and demand improvement. This honesty enables learning and adaptation. We need the same honesty in agriculture to judge which policies work, where money is wasted and where farmers see change. Being hypocritically polite will not feed anyone.
The truth is that smallholders matter as much as the players. You do not win AFCON by training only the national team. You anchor it with strong local leagues. In farming that means investing in village roads, in warehouses, in local processing plants, and in digital tools that let farmers are paid fair prices.
When the final whistle blows at AFCON this weekend, we will celebrate goals and heroes but also the bigger story of the unseen work that made them possible. Africa’s nutrition and agriculture challenge is no different.
Manlan is Chief of Partnerships and Business Development, AGRA
