Research into new crops resistant to heat, droughts or floods, better support for small-scale farmers and greater involvement by national leaders in setting policies in sectors from transport to education were needed, it said.
"Africa can feed itself. And it can make the transition from hungry importer to self-sufficiency in a single generation," said an international study led by Harvard University professor Calestous Juma.
About 70 percent of Africans are involved in agriculture but almost 250 million people, or a quarter of the population of the poorest continent, are undernourished. The number has risen by 100 million since 1990.
