Africa must go the organic way to combat antimicrobial resistance

The resolution proposed a prescriptive, one-size-fits-all global action plan, triggering coordinated political, scientific and media engagement.

With endorsement from the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), this plan became the global blueprint for combating AMR. Yet despite these efforts, AMR continues to advance toward a post-antibiotic era in which common infections could once again be fatal. Africa is bearing a disproportionate share of this burden.

AMR occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites no longer respond to antimicrobial medicines. While resistance is a natural evolutionary process, it has been accelerated by practices in healthcare and agriculture.

Extensive use of synthetic fertilisers has degraded soils by reducing microbial diversity, allowing resistant organisms to spread through water systems and food chains.

Degraded soils have become incubators for antibiotic-resistant bacteria, transmitted from farms to consumers through food.

This farm-to-fork transmission pathway is well documented and accelerating, with particularly severe consequences in Africa. The continent records an estimated 4.1 million AMR infections annually, resulting in more than 250,000 deaths.

Africa, however, holds a strategic advantage. It possesses about 70 percent of the world’s remaining arable land, and many of its agricultural systems are not yet irreversibly locked into chemical dependency.

This gives the continent a critical policy choice: continue subsidising imported chemical inputs that exacerbate AMR-related externalities, or pivot toward regenerative, ecological agriculture that internalises these risks while delivering climate, health and productivity benefits.

The second path is both preferable and achievable. Realising it will require political will, moral courage and policy coherence to redirect subsidies toward organic and regenerative systems.

As Africa pursues sustainable development, its leaders must prevent human-induced ecological failures from eroding hard-won health and environmental gains. The future of Africa’s food and health systems lies in restoring, not exhausting, nature.

Prof Kieyahis a public policy analyst at the Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis (Kippra).

Gichuru is a graduate student at London School of Economics.

Dr Mokaya is the Dierector, Organic Consumer Alliance