The continent loses enough grain each year to feed 48 million people. The solution is hiding in plain sight.
The continent's agricultural crises are not accidents of nature. They are the predictable consequences of certainty without evidence.
By Balbir Singh There is a question that haunts every serious observer of international development: with billions of dollars flowing into agricultural programs across Africa and...
The continent's coming workforce explosion demands a new kind of farming - and technology may be the catalyst that makes it possible.
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo The dazzling machines on display in Kentucky made one thing clear: the real frontier of agricultural AI is not in the field...
By Juwon Akin-Olotu Africa’s agricultural economy does not need faster unicorns. It needs a fundamentally different animal. There is a particular kind of hubris that travels...
By Balbir Singh International development organizations are pushing outdated agricultural models that ignore ground realities and perpetuate poverty. A recent high-level meeting with delegates from international...
By Juwon Akin-Olotu ₦2.2 trillion (US$1.6 billion) allocated for agriculture. Record budget figures. Renewed hope for food security. These were the headlines that dominated Nigeria’s agricultural...
By John Dale The promise of agricultural technology often comes wrapped in seductive rhetoric: disintermediation, direct-to-consumer models, blockchain traceability that “cuts out the middleman.” Yet this...
By Balbir Singh The rusting hulk of a 150-horsepower tractor lies submerged in a river in rural Kenya. A sophisticated pivot irrigation system, designed for the...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Imagine explaining artificial intelligence to a four-year-old child in rural Africa. You wouldn’t begin with algorithms or machine learning models. Instead, you...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Every algorithm powering precision agriculture. Every autonomous drone mapping field boundaries. Every self-navigating tractor optimizing fuel consumption. None of them materialized overnight....
By John Dale For decades, Africa’s agricultural challenges have provided fodder for countless panel discussions, media interviews, and development conferences. The narrative is familiar: inadequate infrastructure,...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo When Airtel Africa announced its partnership with Elon Musk’s SpaceX this week, it marked more than another corporate deal in the telecommunications...
By Sheena Raikundalia The numbers don’t lie: simple farm practices are unlocking US$25–35 million in annual income gains with virtually no climate finance behind them. Yet...
By Juwon Akin-Olotu My father posed a deceptively simple question over dinner recently, one that cuts to the heart of West Africa’s agricultural conundrum: Why are...
By Ronald Sanders The governments of the world’s powerful nations have learned to live with disregard for human suffering. That is the bleak truth behind a...
By Juwon Akin-Olotu Walk into any international development conference in Europe or the United States, and you will encounter the same carefully curated imagery projected onto...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo A few days ago, on a farm in Nebraska, I watched a revelation unfold. A farmer demonstrated his tractor – a sophisticated...
By Balbir Singh At global forums – from Davos to Addis Ababa – policymakers and development advisors repeat a familiar mantra: Africa must industrialize and boost...
By Curtis Akunfu “A farmer with a hoe cannot compete with a farmer driving a combine harvester.“ This simple truth reverberates across the farmlands of the...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Africa stands at a pivotal crossroads. With a rapidly growing population, climate volatility, and persistent post-harvest losses, the continent’s food systems are...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo For generations, African farmers have fed nations with little more than hand hoes, resilience, and deep agrarian knowledge. They have sustained food...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo For years, well-meaning voices have insisted that Africa isn’t ready for artificial intelligence. “Focus on tractors first,” they say. “Distribute fertilizers. Build...
By Ajay Wasserman Africa is home to 60 percent of the world’s uncultivated arable land – yet it spends more than US$60 billion annually importing food....
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Africa spends over US$35 billion annually importing food – much of it crops that could thrive on its own soil. This staggering...
By Ziad Hamoui In a landmark move for regional integration, the African Union Commission (AUC), the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission, and the...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Over the past three years, I have walked through greenhouses in China, olive groves in Italy, high-tech farms in the UK, and...
By Danilo Desiderio In the decades since the 1994 genocide, Rwanda has emerged as one of Africa’s most compelling development success stories. From the ashes of...
By Dian Baldé Africa’s push for agro-industrialization has long been framed as a race to build factories, attract investors, and export value-added goods. But too often,...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo While the world races to dominate artificial intelligence, a far more transformative revolution is quietly taking root across Africa – one that...
By Curtis Akunfu By 2050, the world’s population is expected to surpass 9.7 billion – with two-thirds living in cities. This unprecedented demographic shift places immense...
By Des H Rikhotso Across Africa, the rhythm of life pulses through the soil. From the sun-drenched fields of Ethiopia to the fertile plains of Nigeria...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo When most people think of maize – commonly known as corn – in Africa, they picture a golden cob on a plate,...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Africa stands at a crossroads. We can continue relying on fragmented systems, food imports, and outdated perceptions of farming – or we...
By Jean Claude Niyomugabo Sub-Saharan Africa is home to one of the fastest-growing populations on Earth. By 2050, the region’s population is projected to surpass 2.1...
Partners in the Grow Africa, a program by the World Economic Forum, NEPAD and the African Union, said it doubled its agricultural investment commitments from companies...
