The recent literature on economic development in Africa emphasizes that the agricultural transformation still needs to play a key role for poverty reduction and food security. As compared to the situation of the Green Revolution in Asia, there are new opportunities for the agricultural transformation in Africa, but also new challenges. Against this background, the paper shows that is essential that countries develop sufficient political will to achieve an agricultural transformation. The paper presents a concept of political will and applies this concept empirically, using a range of indicators of political will, such as government expenditure on agriculture. The paper proposes various demand-side and supply-side strategies to strengthen the political will to promote the agricultural transformation in Africa.