Agriculture Development & Food Security

We help to improve agri-food systems around the world by bringing innovative thinking, multi-disciplinary expertise, a nuanced understanding of the private sector, and world-class analytics.
About three-quarters of the world’s impoverished population depends on agriculture for a living, and low-income families on every continent struggle with accessing nutritious food. Our commitment to fighting world hunger, poverty, and malnutrition can be seen in our support for governments, companies, donors, development banks, and civil society tackling complex challenges. We help to improve agri-food systems around the world by bringing innovative thinking, multi-disciplinary expertise, a nuanced understanding of the private sector, and world-class analytics. In addition, we partner with the McKinsey Center for Agricultural Transformation and Food Security to accelerate successful agricultural transformations for governments, companies, and society.

What We Do

Plan for transformations in rural economies
Raise smallholder farmers out of poverty
Improve the services of food banks and pantries
Tackle deforestation
Address the impacts of climate change
Plan for an epidemic of obesity
Fight childhood stunting

Examples of our work

Designing an agricultural transformation

Supported an Eastern European public authority in designing a new agricultural subsidy model with a 30 percent return on investment on subsidies and a $600 million boost in farmgate revenue.

Realizing a digital transformation for an African bank

Supported an East African bank in realizing a digital transformation and co-creating a mobile wallet and agro-dealer app for supply and stock management. With this, it was possible to register 3.3 million farming households with a potential impact on GDP growth of 6 percent a year.

Navigating climate change and agri-food systems

Forecasted near-term changes in crop-yield volatility due to precipitation trends in sub-Saharan African countries.

Optimizing data and analytics

Built a digital food-balance sheet for an African government to track the stocks, production, trade, and consumption of maize.

Featured Experts

Nicolas Denis
Partner
Advises government institutions on sustainable economic development and serves leading companies in agribusiness, fisheries, forestry, and biotech
Gillian Pais
Partner
Leads McKinsey’s work in agriculture and sustainable land use in Africa and advises governments, development partners, and private companies on agriculture and sustainability topics

Featured Capabilities

McKinsey Center for Agricultural Transformation
The McKinsey Center for Agricultural Transformation helps reduce poverty, improve climate resilience, create jobs, improve nutrition, and foster economic growth through successful agricultural transformations.

ACRE
ACRE combines proprietary market outlooks, pricing data, and expert insights to help food companies, governments, investors, and agriculture players make better pricing, crop selection, and sales and marketing decisions.

Featured insights

Collection

Tackling food insecurity and community hunger

This collection of articles and multimedia draws together McKinsey’s thinking on food insecurity. As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect access to food for many, what can food banks, distribution partners, philanthropic foundations, and the private sector do to increase resilience and ensure that people across North America have reliable access to nutritious meals?
Article

What is food insecurity?
– Food insecurity refers to the economic and social conditions that limit access to safe, nutritious food—and sufficient amounts of it.
Article

How digital tools can help transform African agri-food systems
– Higher income for farmers, increased output, and improved food security are among the benefits of utilizing digital tools in an agricultural setting.
Article

How digital innovation is transforming agriculture: Lessons from India
– Four leaders in Indian agriculture discuss the sector’s challenges and digital innovation’s potential impact on smallholder farmers.

Related Practices

How We Help Clients

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