At Africa Food Systems Forum, CGIAR highlights scalable and investment-ready innovations to deliver on Africa’s CAADP Strategy and Action Plan.

KIGALI, RWANDA, September 3, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Scalable innovations in climate resilience, digital agriculture and nutrition were on display at this year’s Africa Food Systems Forum (AFSF), underscoring science’s critical role in the transformation of Africa’s food systems.

Presented by CGIAR, the world's largest publicly funded agrifood research network, the innovations demonstrate investable opportunities to scale up proven science-backed, agrifood innovations to drive the continent's agriculture agenda.

Innovations showcased include a digital fertilizer advisory system that has improved yields by up to 25% for nearly 50,000 farmers in Ethiopia, a bundle of climate-smart, digital, financial innovations boosting crop yields for women farmers in rural Kenya by 80%, and a novel financing model unlocking $1.5 billion in funding towards agriculture innovations in Nigeria, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

In recent years, CGIAR has developed more than 470 food systems innovations globally, benefitting in excess of six million farmers across the continent. The Africa Food Systems Forum brought together CGIAR leadership together with African governments, international funders and other actors to co-design ways to scale the delivery and impact of the most promising innovations.

This year’s Africa Food Systems Forum takes place as African countries embark on the ambitious Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme Strategy and Action Plan (CAADP) 2026 - 2035 to transform their food systems into engines of economic growth and prosperity.

The transformation faces several headwinds. Africa is currently bearing the largest burden of hunger. At the same time, an intensifying El Niño and extreme weather is forecast to reduce rainfall and agriculture yields across several parts of the continent. Global geopolitical volatility is also driving up the cost of agriculture inputs, while several armed conflicts put millions at risk of severe malnutrition. All this is happening as African governments endure high debt burdens with constrained development budgets and as traditional aid contracts.

“The innovations Africa needs to solve its food systems challenges exist and are proven. What’s missing is the partnerships and funding infrastructure needed to de-risk investment and deliver these solutions at scale,” said Ismahane Elouafi, Executive Managing Director of the CGIAR.

“Scaling science that works is the missing link between the continent's ambitious transformation goals and the real-world impact to make them reality.”

At least four of CGIAR’s centers are headquartered in Africa, with at least 10 having significant operations on the continent. Through its forthcoming Strategy 2040, CGIAR’s priority in Africa is to connect proven science with development finance, policy and national delivery to scale the delivery of innovations that work and realize the CAADP transformation agenda.

CGIAR's comparative advantage is evidence: decades of science that shows which innovations actually work, for whom, and under what conditions, before anyone commits capital. That science has already returned roughly $10 for every $1 invested once brought to scale, which is exactly the kind of track record that makes multilateral lenders like the World Bank and the African Development Bank want to put their money behind innovations developed by CGIAR centers and our partners, especially as traditional aid shrinks,” said Tim Krupnik, Director of CGIAR’s Scaling for Impact Program.

Donna Bowater
Marchmont Communications
donna@marchmontcomms.com