NAIROBI, KENYA — The Harvesting the Future Africa Summit, held this June in Nairobi, concluded with a strong call to accelerate investment in proven solutions that can transform Africa’s food systems at scale.
Convened by CIMMYT and its partners, the summit brought together African and international leaders from government, research, philanthropy, finance, and the private sector to align science, capital, policy, and enterprise around a shared vision for a more resilient, productive and food-secure Africa.
Africa’s food systems are at a defining moment. Climate shocks, conflict, rising production costs, fertilizer supply disruptions, and economic uncertainty are placing increasing pressure on farmers, markets, and national food systems. At the same time, the continent’s growing population, expanding cities, rising food demand, and youthful workforce present a great opportunity for economic growth, job creation, and long-term resilience.
The summit underscored a central message: Africa needs sustained investment to keep advancing agricultural innovation and to bring proven solutions to far more farmers, faster.
“At CIMMYT, our ambition is clear: food security innovation that will nourish communities, create jobs, and drive sustainable growth across Africa,” said Bram Govaerts, Director General of CIMMYT. “The challenge before us is discovering what works and then getting it into the hands of more farmers in more places, faster. We have to scale at speed.”
“Across the continent, farmers, researchers, governments, and businesses are already demonstrating what is possible,” said Dr. Agnes Kalibata, CIMMYT Board Member and keynote speaker at the summit. “Our opportunity is to make sure they have access to the resources they need to succeed.”
Scaling What Works
Across Africa, CIMMYT and its partners are advancing solutions that connect science to implementation, farmers to markets, and innovation to investment. These include improved crop varieties, climate-smart practices, soil health solutions, digital advisory tools, crop protection approaches, seed systems, inclusive business models, and market innovations designed to increase productivity, strengthen resilience, and create economic opportunity.
The summit highlighted the organization’s integrated food systems approach working with partners. Participants heard how locally adapted innovations are helping farmers respond to growing geopolitical disruptions, extreme weather, and market pressures.
Speakers emphasized that stronger food security is central to Africa’s future prosperity. Reducing dependence on food imports, strengthening local value chains, expanding markets for staple crops, and creating jobs for young people are economic priorities. Investment in agricultural innovation can help countries withstand today’s shocks while building the foundations for long-term growth, competitiveness, and self-reliance.
The convening also reinforced CIMMYT’s role not only as a research institution, but as a trusted system-wide partner and platform for scalable investment. Working with national research systems, governments, seed companies, farmer organizations, private sector actors, and development partners, the organization helps move innovations from research plots to farmers’ fields, from local success stories to national systems, and from promising ideas to measurable results.
From Mexico to Africa: A Proven Playbook for Food Systems Transformation
One of the summit’s key themes was the importance of translating proven science into large-scale impact. Participants explored lessons from CIMMYT’s work with partners in Mexico, where the MasAgro model demonstrated how science-driven, integrated approaches can raise productivity, help farmers respond to weather variability, strengthen local seed systems, improve access to innovation, and create pathways for sustainable agricultural growth at scale. The model has since informed the organization’s work with partners across Africa.
“Mexico’s partnership with CIMMYT has always been about more than agricultural development within our own borders,” said H.E. Ms. Gisele Fernández Ludlow, Ambassador of Mexico to Kenya. “The innovations we invested in together are now protecting harvests and building resilience for millions of farmers across Africa and beyond. This is what science diplomacy looks like in practice — and it is a model the world needs to see more of.”
The Ambassador’s remarks underscored a broader message echoed throughout the summit: the most effective investments in food systems transformation are those built on proven science, long-term partnerships, and a commitment to putting farmers at the center of development.
A Moment to Invest in Africa’s Food Future
Africa imports billions of dollars’ worth of staple foods each year despite possessing enormous agricultural potential. At the same time, decades of investment in agricultural science have generated proven innovations capable of increasing productivity, strengthening resilience, and creating economic opportunity across the continent.
The Harvesting the Future Africa Summit closed with a clear call to action: scale the technologies, enterprises, and partnerships that are already delivering results; mobilize investment for solutions that strengthen resilience and reduce import dependence; and align science, policy, capital, and markets around Africa’s food-secure future.
Whether through funding, collaboration, policy support, or private sector engagement, the summit affirmed that every committed actor has a role to play. The cost of inaction will be measured in deeper food insecurity, lost livelihoods, weakened markets, and greater climate vulnerability. The opportunity, however, is far greater: a more resilient, prosperous, and food-secure future for Africa and the world.
About CIMMYT
CIMMYT is a cutting edge, non-profit, international organization dedicated to solving tomorrow's problems today. It is entrusted with fostering improved quantity, quality, and dependability of production systems and basic cereals such as maize, wheat, triticale, sorghum, millets, and associated crops through applied agricultural science, particularly in the Global South, through building strong partnerships. This combination enhances the livelihood trajectories and resilience of millions of resource-poor farmers, while working towards a more productive, inclusive, and resilient agrifood system within planetary boundaries.