diff --git a/package/ncftp/0001-configure-detect-cross-compilation-from-host-and-buil.patch b/package/ncftp/0001-configure-detect-cross-compilation-from-host-and-buil.patch
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..c3ecd61d1f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/package/ncftp/0001-configure-detect-cross-compilation-from-host-and-buil.patch
@@ -0,0 +1,60 @@
+From: Yegor Yefremov <yegorslists@googlemail.com>
+Date: Thu, 3 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200
+Subject: [PATCH] configure: detect cross compilation from --host and --build
+
+ncftp still ships a configure script generated with autoconf 2.13, which
+determines whether it is cross compiling by simply trying to run a
+trivial program built with $CC. That heuristic breaks when the build
+machine is able to execute the binaries produced by the cross compiler,
+which is typically the case when building for x86/x86-64 on an x86-64
+machine: configure then concludes it is not cross compiling and starts
+using AC_TRY_RUN based tests.
+
+Those tests link against the target libraries but are executed on the
+build machine, so they fail as soon as more than the bare C library is
+involved. The most visible victim is the curses detection, which links
+the test program against the target libncurses and then runs it:
+
+  checking for curses library headers... checking for ncurses.h... yes
+  checking for curses.h... yes
+  checking for curses library... no
+
+With no curses library, ncftpbookmarks is silently dropped from the
+build and installation later fails with:
+
+  install: cannot stat '.../build/ncftp-3.3.0/bin/ncftpbookmarks': No such file or directory
+
+Follow what autoconf has been doing since 2.50 and consider the build
+cross compilation as soon as --host is given and differs from --build,
+regardless of whether the produced binaries happen to be runnable.
+
+Note: configure is not regenerated during the build, hence the generated
+script is patched directly.
+
+Upstream: N/A, patching a generated file (upstream has neither a public
+VCS nor a bug tracker)
+
+Signed-off-by: Yegor Yefremov <yegorslists@googlemail.com>
+---
+ configure | 7 ++++++-
+ 1 file changed, 6 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
+
+diff --git a/configure b/configure
+index d955e20..2311c73 100755
+--- a/configure
++++ b/configure
+@@ -845,8 +845,13 @@ int main(void){return(0);}
+ EOF
+ if { (eval echo configure:847: \"$ac_link\") 1>&5; (eval $ac_link) 2>&5; } && test -s conftest${ac_exeext}; then
+   ac_cv_prog_cc_works=yes
++  # If --host was given and differs from --build, we are cross compiling,
++  # even when the build machine happens to be able to run the binaries
++  # produced by the cross compiler.
++  if test "$host" != NONE && test "$host" != "$build"; then
++    ac_cv_prog_cc_cross=yes
+   # If we can't run a trivial program, we are probably using a cross compiler.
+-  if (./conftest; exit) 2>/dev/null; then
++  elif (./conftest; exit) 2>/dev/null; then
+     ac_cv_prog_cc_cross=no
+   else
+     ac_cv_prog_cc_cross=yes
diff --git a/package/ncftp/ncftp.mk b/package/ncftp/ncftp.mk
index c56fc86848..4075449c53 100644
--- a/package/ncftp/ncftp.mk
+++ b/package/ncftp/ncftp.mk
@@ -11,7 +11,6 @@ NCFTP_TARGET_BINS = ncftp
 NCFTP_LICENSE = ClArtistic
 NCFTP_LICENSE_FILES = doc/LICENSE.txt
 
-NCFTP_DEPENDENCIES = host-autoconf
 NCFTP_CONF_OPTS = --disable-ccdv
 
 ifeq ($(BR2_PACKAGE_NCFTP_GET),y)