The warmth - visible on the sidelines of the 26th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan - could acquire greater strategic significance. Togo has embarked on its ambitious Programme de Modernisation de l’Agriculture (ProMAT) 2025–2034, a decade-long effort to transform agriculture into a more productive, climate-resilient, and market-oriented sector. 

At the recently concluded SCO Summit, Togo was part of the SCO-Plus format, which brought together the 10 SCO member states with leaders and representatives from partner and invited countries. 

The brief interaction between Modi and Gnassingbé could, if followed up through a carefully calibrated diplomatic and economic strategy, translate into near-term opportunities for India - not only in Togo’s emerging agricultural and commercial landscape but also as a potential gateway to wider West African markets. 

Togo: Modernising The Farm Sector

Agriculture constitutes a strategic pillar of the Togolese economy, representing 40% of national GDP and employing about 60% of the active population. 

By rolling out ProMAT, Togo plans to transform into a leading regional hub for agribusiness and ancillary activities, accelerating investment in modernising agriculture, building processing industries, and improving market access for its products.

The large-scale planned intervention is estimated to cost around US$ 1.6 billion to fully execute the programme through 2034. Togo has already secured an initial funding of US$300 million from the World Bank, based on a results-based Sustainable Agriculture Transformation Program-for-Results (PforR), in June 2025. It will be delivered in two phases: US$ 150.2 million for the first phase and US$ 149.8 million for the second. 

With the initial plan in place, the Togolese government has aggressively initiated its outreach to rally international partners and financial institutions to close the remaining funding gap.

India-Togo Opportunities

Farm mechanisation, irrigation, fertiliser access, seed supply, and integrated project development are areas that have been India’s stronghold for decades. This can easily open a potentially important avenue for commercial partnerships in Africa. 

While Lines of Credit (LoCs) and Exim Bank-backed funding might take a slow meandering process, what could be extended to Togo earlier is affordable agri-technology, agricultural knowledge, skills and scalable solutions for smallholder-led agricultural modernisation. Farm mechanisation is perhaps India's biggest immediate opportunity, exporting tractor-trailer sets as well as seeding and harvesting machines. 

India’s considerable experience with drip irrigation, sprinkler systems, watershed management, and smallholder irrigation are best suited for the region. In addition to exporting irrigation units and water systems, India can practically demonstrate and train Togolese farmers by creating platforms like India–Togo Climate-Smart Irrigation Demonstration Zones.

Agri-processing and marketing, another major forte of India, will be critical in building the required eco-system from production to aggregation, storage, processing, packaging and marketing. India’s enormous experience in relatively low-cost food-processing technologies and involving Indian SMEs could be a confident bet for Togo’s rice milling, cassava and soybean processing, grain storage, cold chains, packaging and also food-testing laboratories.

These diverse business opportunities make ProMAT a potentially very significant market for Indian agricultural machinery, irrigation and seed companies, agri-tech firms, food-processing companies and agricultural research institutions. 

The Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) signed a bilateral Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Togolese Institute of Agronomic Research (ITRA) on 11 September 2025. This could be India's strongest institutional entry point with a focus on climate-resilient crops, soil and nutrient management, smallholder mechanisation, and post-harvest value addition.

Similarly, FACT (Fertilisers and Chemicals Travancore Limited) and SNPT (Société Nouvelle des Phosphates du Togo), the state-owned phosphate company of Togo, signed a Cooperation Framework Agreement for the regular supply of rock phosphate in February 2025. Togo has significant phosphate resources and India has a major fertiliser industry, creating immense potential for a two-way value chain and industry linkages.

Making An Early Move

Togo's agricultural modernisation is already attracting European, Chinese, Turkish, Gulf and other international players. 

Earlier this year, Belarus had announced plans to supply roughly 4,500 farm machines to Togo. Recently, Brazil's Daniel Franco Institute signed a memorandum of understanding with Togo to strengthen livestock and agribusiness. China continues to be an important player, particularly through farm-equipment supply.

For India, the recently concluded SCO summit provides the right diplomatic context and opportune time for Indian agriculture companies to participate in Togo’s decade-long agricultural transformation. What began as a striking moment of diplomatic warmth could, therefore, evolve into a practical partnership centred on one of Togo’s most important development priorities, transforming agriculture into an engine of growth

A Gateway For Indian Agribusiness Into West Africa

Togo’s ambitious ProMAT 2025–2034 agricultural modernisation programme creates an opportunity for India to move beyond conventional development cooperation towards a commercially meaningful agribusiness partnership. For Indian companies, the opportunity extends well beyond Togo’s domestic market. 

Existing water and road connectivity in Lomé and its logistics corridors into the Sahel make Togo a potential entry point for Indian agricultural technology, machinery, irrigation systems, fertilisers, crop-protection products, food-processing equipment, digital agriculture, and agro-processing companies seeking to establish a West African presence.

Togo’s Plateforme Industrielle d’Adétikopé (PIA), designed around storage, processing, manufacturing and export, could emerge as a strong production base, where Indian companies could establish manufacturing, assembly, processing, distribution or service hubs and tap the neighbouring markets, particularly along the Lomé–Ouagadougou corridor. 

It also resonates well with the broader development priorities of the region. 

Togo is seeking to transform agriculture from largely subsistence production into market-oriented, productive and value-added agriculture, while Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) is simultaneously working to strengthen cross-border agricultural trade and market integration. 

A successful India–Togo agricultural partnership could eventually open new business opportunities across the broader ECOWAS market, linking Indian agricultural research, affordable technology, private investment, development finance, and capacity building with regions’ agricultural transformation priorities.

(The writer is a geopolitical analyst and Director at the African Centre of India. Views expressed are personal.)