Feed aggregator

Farmer Field Day held at Mariira, to demonstrate the different Climate Smart Technologies used in farming. December 22nd, 2022. Murang'a county, Kenya. Credit: 2022 CIAT/Owen Kimani

By Ismahane Elouafi
KIGALI, Rwanda, Sep 3 2026 (IPS)

As leaders gather in Kigali for the Africa Food Systems Forum, they face an urgent question: why do so many proven agricultural innovations still fail to reach the farmers and communities that need them most?

For the first time, Africa is home to the largest number of people facing hunger. This is despite decades of agricultural innovation developed to address the continent’s food and agriculture challenges. Between 2022 and 2024, CGIAR – the world’s largest partnership dedicated to transforming food, land and water systems in a climate crisis – developed more than 470 innovations, reaching at least six million farmers across the continent.

Africa’s food systems challenges are not the result of a lack of innovation. Rather, a set of overlapping, complex and increasingly severe pressures is undermining progress at a critical point in the continent’s transformation.

Climate-driven weather impacts are becoming more frequent and severe. A predicted “super” El Niño in the coming months is forecast to create drier than usual conditions across parts of West and Central Africa. In East Africa, it is forecast to reduce normal rainfall in some regions and to lead to severe rainfall and flooding in others. According to the World Meteorological Organization, Africa is warming faster than the global average.

Escalating conflicts across several African countries are disrupting food supply chains and increasing the risk of severe food emergencies. At the same time, geopolitical instability has driven up the cost of agricultural inputs and transport, creating further barriers to sustainable farming. All this is taking place against a backdrop of reduced funding for agricultural development and an unprecedented decline in international aid to sub-Saharan Africa.

African countries are confronting this confluence of challenges as they begin implementing the new 10-year Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Strategy and Action Plan (2026–2035), the African Union-led roadmap for transforming the continent’s agrifood systems into more resilient drivers of economic growth, food security and healthy diets.

The roadmap sets the ambition. What is missing is the architecture to make that happen: the “missing middle” between proven agricultural innovation and the large-scale public investment, partnerships and delivery capacity needed to take it to scale.

Bridging this missing middle requires development funders to rethink how they support agricultural innovation. Governments, international financial institutions, multilateral development banks and African development finance institutions must move beyond portfolios of disparate projects and invest instead in coherent innovation pathways. Science and evidence must be integrated from the outset, before investment decisions are made.

Innovation pathways provide a route for moving tried-and-tested solutions to scale. They allow governments, funders, scientific organizations and partners to work together to identify, validate, scale and measure the impact of the most promising innovations.

Bundling complementary innovations into investable packages can also help accelerate deployment and impact, opening opportunities for ambitious young Africans to build firms, provide services and create jobs within their own food systems.

African governments must remain in the driver’s seat throughout this process. That is essential to ensure investments respond to national priorities and align with country agrifood systems investment plans under CAADP.

CGIAR is working to build precisely these connections between country demand, science, finance and delivery. One example is the partnership between CGIAR Scaling for Impact with the African Development Bank to support the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) and its Clearinghouse. It demonstrates how large-scale development finance and scientific expertise can be brought together to meet national agricultural priorities and deliver proven, science-backed technologies at scale.

The TAAT Clearinghouse connects country demand and AfDB financing with proven innovations, CGIAR expertise and the technical support needed for effective delivery. It is currently linking approximately US$1.5 billion in AfDB-backed investments in Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo with science-backed technologies and expertise.

In 2026 alone, CGIAR innovations funded and scaled through the TAAT Clearinghouse are expected to reach 3.4 million farmers across the continent.

The Africa Food Systems Forum must therefore be more than a place to showcase promising ideas. It should be a critical inflection point for moving from commitment to credible investment, action and delivery. African policymakers, investors, development finance institutions and researchers should use the Forum to build a more systematic science-to-finance compact—one that places proven innovation at the heart of national investment and delivery.

In an era of less aid and greater instability, Africa cannot afford for proven science to remain stranded in pilot projects—or for billions in development finance to be invested without the best available evidence. Connecting the two is one of the fastest ways to turn Africa’s food systems ambitions into results at scale.

Dr. Ismahane Elouafi is Executive Managing Director, CGIAR

IPS UN Bureau

 

Follow @IPSNewsUNBureau
!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+'://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js';fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document, 'script', 'twitter-wjs');

 

 

Excerpt:

As leaders gather in Kigali for the Africa Food Systems Forum, CGIAR’s Ismahane Elouafi argues that Africa must connect proven agricultural innovation with the finance, partnerships and delivery systems needed to achieve impact at scale.

Donald Trump a proposé mercredi 2 septembre de renommer le détroit d’Ormuz en « détroit Trump ». Malgré la reprise des hostilités depuis dimanche 30 août entre l’Iran et les États-Unis, le locataire de la Maison Blanche espère imprimer l’idée d’une situation sous contrôle. Jeudi 3 septembre, le Koweït a affirmé être la cible d’attaques de Téhéran.

En Guinée Conakry, beaucoup sont choqués par la découverte le 24 août, près de Forécariah, d'une fosse commune avec six corps qu'on a retrouvés les mains ligotées et les yeux bandés. S'agit-il d'exécutions extrajudiciaires ? Saura-t-on un jour la vérité ? L'ancien Premier ministre Cellou Dalein Diallo, contraint à l'exil, préside toujours l'Union des forces démocratiques de Guinée (UFDG), malgré sa dissolution officielle, en mars dernier, par le régime du président Doumbouya. De passage à Paris, le principal opposant guinéen répond aux questions de RFI.

Nagykorúvá lesz jövőre a Kolozsvári Magyar Napok, de Gergely Balázs nem engedi el a kezét. A javában beágyazott, intézményesedett kolozsvári programfolyam főszervezője máris tervez, fontolgat, de leginkább a helyi erőforrások hatékonyabb vállalásaira számít, amikor a távlatokat firtatja. A Tetőteraszon több éve hagyomány, hogy a főszervező összegzi az éppen lezajlott magyarnapos benyomásokat. Idén sem volt ez […]

Articolul Továbbra is tárva apare prima dată în Kolozsvári Rádió Románia.

L’Ukraine a officiellement saisi l’Organisation de l’aviation civile internationale (OACI) pour l’alerter sur les dangers liés à l’utilisation de l’espace aérien russe. Kiev demande même que ses États membres soient encouragés à y interdire les vols civils. Alors que les attaques de drones ukrainiens perturbent régulièrement le trafic aérien en Russie, cette démarche vise aussi à accroître l’isolement du pays et à faire peser davantage les conséquences de la guerre sur sa population.

Mali Actu - maliactu.net - Mali Actualités, Les Actus et Informations sur le Mali
Mali Actu
Mercato : Franculino s’engage officiellement avec Trabzonspor en provenance de Midtjylland

L’arrivée de Franculino au sein du club turc de Trabzonspor a été officialisée. Cette transaction a été conclue avec la formation danoise de Midtjylland. Un…

Mercato : Franculino s’engage officiellement avec Trabzonspor en provenance de Midtjylland
Mali Actu :
Mercato : Franculino s’engage officiellement avec Trabzonspor en provenance de Midtjylland

In seinem 295. Pflichtspiel für GC wächst der 172 Zentimeter kleine Amir Abrashi über sich hinaus. In sechs Spielen schoss er nun zwei Tore – vorher war er vor elf Jahren letztmals in der Super League erfolgreich.

Waghalsiges Manöver in Graubünden: Gleitschirmpilot Patrick von Känel bezwingt das Landwasserviadukt bei Filisur. Nach 20 Versuchen gelingt ihm ein Slalom zwischen den Pfeilern hindurch, während ein Zug über das 65 Meter hohe Bauwerk rollt.

Il y a un an, le 3 septembre 2025, le funiculaire de Gloria, l'un des emblèmes de Lisbonne, déraillait et s'écrasait. L'accident a coûté la vie à 16 personnes et fait 22 blessés. Le dossier est loin d'être clos, mais les autorités se veulent optimistes. Les ascenseurs historiques de la capitale portugaise transportaient 2,3 millions de personnes chaque année.

Ein Angebotsausbau in der Surselva bringt Postauto an seine Grenzen. In einem Brandbrief beklagen Chauffeure «massive Missstände». Dabei geht es auch um die Sicherheit der Fahrgäste. Postauto verspricht Massnahmen.

Six personnes sont mortes et une autre est portée disparue après l’incendie suivi d’une explosion qui a ravagé le bateau congolais MV Pacifique, vendredi 28 août dans la soirée, au port de Kigoma, en Tanzanie, sur les rives du lac Tanganyika. Les victimes sont toutes des membres de l’équipage, selon les autorités portuaires.

Trotz ausstehender Löhne, Insolvenz und offener Zukunft fährt Nicole Koller in Val di Sole zu WM-Bronze. Die Schweizerin zeigt damit ausgerechnet in der schwierigsten Phase ihrer Karriere ihre Klasse.

Eine deutsche Touristin (32) sorgt auf der italienischen Autobahn für Angst und Schrecken: Sie dreht am Citerna-Pass um und fährt 50 Kilometer in die falsche Richtung.

Nach dem Misserfolg des F-150 Lightning plant Ford für 2027 einen neuen Elektro-Pick-up: Der Fathom soll die Amerikaner vor allem mit seinem attraktiven Preis überzeugen.

The Danish Ministry of Defence is urgently laying the foundations for its seabed surveillance capability. Its procurement agency, the Forsvarsministeriets Materiel- og Indkøbsstyrelse (FMI), launched two direct award procedures on 25 August with Norwegian industrial group Kongsberg's marine technologies division [...]

Israeli defence group Elbit Systems is set to make an appearance at the upcoming SOFEX special forces exhibition, scheduled to [...]

The National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) has told Intelligence Online it believes raids by other government bodies last year [...]

French President Emmanuel Macron dispatched his Francophonie minister Eléonore Caroit (IO, 18/03/26) to the Pacific Islands Forum (PIF) for precisely [...]

A series of mysterious strikes on alleged drug trafficking boats near Ecuador has drawn attention to several surveillance equipped Cessna [...]

America can win if it stays the course.