Helping reduce poverty, improve climate resilience, create jobs, improve nutrition, and foster economic growth through successful agricultural transformations
The McKinsey Center for Agricultural Transformation draws together the firm’s expertise in agriculture, international development, and food security. The Center has flexibility in developing different engagement models with partners, including performance-based models and longer-term relationships. At its core, the Center is focused on accelerating agricultural transformations and improving food security for a range of public, private, and social sector entities.
Because the Center leverages McKinsey’s nuanced understanding of the private sector, deep expertise across diverse fields, and world-class analytics to improve decision making in agricultural transformations, we make a distinctive partner for governments, donors, companies, and civil society—enabling more effective and efficient use of resources to transform rural economies at the national and state levels as well as within industry sectors.
How we help clients
Transformation strategy
We partner with governments, donors, companies, and civil society to improve evidence-based planning and set priorities for accelerating agricultural transformation.
Private-sector engagement
We bring an “investor mind-set” to public-sector policies and support private investments needed to enable commercial opportunities that will create jobs and accelerate growth.
Delivery
Too often, transformation plans fail during implementation. We work closely with stakeholders across public and private sectors, bringing global best practices to drive on-the-ground implementation.
Building capacity
Transformation success depends on talented people—from top leadership to farmer-facing change agents. We tailor capacity-building tools based on global experience in transformation to in-country needs.
Data and analytics
McKinsey has a firmwide commitment to creating and applying next-generation analytics. We provide world-class agricultural transformation data and analytics to support partners.
Featured video
Agricultural transformation challenges
David Fiocco, a Minneapolis-based partner, discusses key challenges in agricultural transformations.
Our approach
Convening power
The ability to gather talented practitioners from both private and public sectors, across diverse areas of expertise, is an important tool for achieving the kind of collaboration and cocreation needed for a successful agricultural transformation.
In-country relationships
We have worked on agricultural transformations in 32 countries around the world. We value our network of relationships with national and local leaders.
Data and analytics
On-the-ground decision makers need better analytics to support agricultural transformations. We provide geospatial insights, advanced artificial-intelligence systems, and integrated layers of data on farm-level productivity, markets, transportation, trade, and more. Our tools are built for use by people making tough decisions and balancing trade-offs.
Access to expertise
We have 75-plus agriculture and food experts and a dedicated research team with global coverage. But agricultural transformation also requires expertise in infrastructure, banking, trade, labor skills, nutrition, gender, youth, consumer behavior, energy, water, and more. We leverage McKinsey’s network to integrate world-class experts across all of these dimensions.
Understanding people
We have a particular focus on what we call the “soft side” of agricultural transformation—an understanding that capacity building among people and institutional innovation are at the core of a successful agricultural transformation. We are developing agricultural transformation leadership programs, and we have deep expertise in the kinds of organizational change needed to enable agricultural transformation.
Examples of our work
Our people
Nicolas Denis
PartnerBrussels
Advises government institutions on sustainable economic development and serves leading companies in agribusiness, fisheries,...
David Fiocco
Senior PartnerMinneapolis
Advises global agricultural companies across developed and emerging markets, working across the value chain from field to fork,...
Omid Kassiri
PartnerNairobi
Supports governments as they pursue a transformation agenda with a focus on economics and agriculture; guides companies to better...
Amandla Ooko-Ombaka
PartnerSeattle
Works globally with food companies to better and more sustainably serve their farmers and consumers, and with governments to...
Gillian Pais
PartnerNairobi
Leads McKinsey’s work in agriculture and sustainable land use in Africa and advises governments, development partners, and private...
Yuito Yamada
Senior PartnerTokyo
Serves as Japan’s leader for McKinsey Sustainability—the firm’s global client service platform to help all industry sectors achieve...
Featured insights
Article
How digital tools can help transform African agri-food systems
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Higher income for farmers, increased output, and improved food security are among the benefits of utilizing digital tools in an agricultural setting.
Article
Winning in Africa’s agricultural market
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Private-sector companies can find practical solutions to enter and grow in Africa’s agricultural market.
Article
Successful agricultural transformations: Six core elements of planning and delivery
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How can countries increase their odds of a successful rural transformation?