• More than 70% of assessed wild food plants in Africa face extinction, a rate twice the global average.

• African gene banks conserve only about 14% of wild relatives of major crops, with less than 10% of seed collections safely duplicated.

• Local crop varieties adapted to African climates continue to disappear, reducing farmers’ resilience to drought and heat.

Africa is losing a significant share of its plant genetic diversity, which underpins food security, livelihoods and the resilience of agricultural systems to climate shocks, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) said in a report published on Thursday, February 12, 2026.

The report, titled “The Third Report on the State of the World’s Plant Genetic Resources for Food and Agriculture,” states that farmers’ varieties, crop wild relatives and wild food plants are disappearing faster than institutions conserve them.

Farmers have developed and transmitted many locally adapted crop varieties over generations. Scientists refer to these varieties as landraces. Farmers are now abandoning these landraces at an accelerating pace, which reduces options as droughts and heat intensify across the continent.

The affected crops include staple varieties such as sorghum, millet, yam, rice and traditional cotton. These crops often adapt better to local soils and climates than commercial varieties, some of which breeders did not select for Africa’s diverse agroecological conditions or farmers’ preferences. The share of local plant varieties considered threatened varies across subregions: Southern Africa reports 42%, Central Africa reports 29%, North Africa reports 26%, West Africa reports 18%, and East Africa reports 6%.

The report also highlights the rapid decline of wild food plants, which provide essential nutrients and serve as a safety net during food shortages. These species include baobab, shea, marula, tamarind and African mango (Irvingia gabonensis). Indigenous leafy vegetables commonly consumed across the continent, including amaranth, African nightshade and cowpea leaves, face similar pressures.

Weak Conservation and Duplication Capacity

More than 70% of assessed wild food plants in Africa face extinction. The share reaches 72% in sub-Saharan Africa and 77% in North Africa. Habitat loss, land-use change and climate stress drive the decline. The rate of loss stands at twice the global average.

The report also warns about the loss of crop wild relatives, which include wild species genetically linked to major food crops such as sorghum, millet, rice, yam, cowpea and African eggplant. Breeders use these species to develop higher-yielding and more climate-resilient crops that resist pests and diseases. More than 70% of these wild relatives face extinction.

African gene banks conserve only about 14% of these crop wild relatives. This limited coverage exposes many adaptive traits to irreversible loss as climate change accelerates species decline.

African gene banks currently hold around 220,000 seed samples from nearly 4,000 plant species. However, institutions have safely duplicated less than 10% of these collections. Sub-Saharan Africa hosts only about 6% of the world’s gene banks, or 59 facilities, compared with 52% in Europe, 24% in Latin America and the Caribbean, and 12% in Asia.

Given the importance of plant genetic resources for the sustainability of African agrifood systems, the FAO calls for urgent and coordinated action. The organization urges governments to strengthen policy frameworks for plant conservation, increase investment in seed systems and gene banks, build scientific and technical capacity, and support farmers and communities as guardians of plant genetic diversity.

This article was initially published in French by Walid Kéfi 

Adapted in English by Ange J.A de Berry Quenum