--- title: TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier | TIME description: Africa’s agricultural productivity has grown in recent decades, but more progress needs to be made to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and create lasting economic growth, experts agreed at the TIME Impact Dinner on Wednesday Sep. 2 in Kigali, Rwanda. canonical: https://time.com/video/GUPqWc3j/ og:title: TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier og:description: Africa’s agricultural productivity has grown in recent decades, but more progress needs to be made to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and create lasting economic growth, experts agreed at the TIME Impact Dinner on Wednesday Sep. 2 in Kigali, Rwanda. og:url: https://time.com/video/GUPqWc3j/ og:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GUPqWc3j/poster.jpg?width=720 og:type: video.other twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier twitter:description: Africa’s agricultural productivity has grown in recent decades, but more progress needs to be made to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and create lasting economic growth, experts agreed at the TIME Impact Dinner on Wednesday Sep. 2 in Kigali, Rwanda. twitter:image: https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/GUPqWc3j/poster.jpg?width=720 --- * World # TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier > Sponsored content. 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They are at time.com/newsletters and are separate from a paid subscription. ## Video: TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier [Watch (HLS stream): TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/GUPqWc3j.m3u8) (33:23)  _Published 2026-09-04. Africa’s agricultural productivity has grown in recent decades, but more progress needs to be made to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and create lasting economic growth, experts agreed at the TIME Impact Dinner on Wednesday Sep. 2 in Kigali, Rwanda._ --- Sep 4, 2026 3:37 PM UTC --- ## More From This Series [All Videos](https://time.com/video/) [Dolly Parton Reflects on Her Legacy in 2020 TIME Interview](/video/HBGENzJ2/) ### Dolly Parton Reflects on Her Legacy in 2020 TIME Interview [CNN Condemns Trump's Attacks on Journalist Kristen Holmes Following Heated Oval Office Response](/video/rynvkcE5/) ### CNN Condemns Trump's Attacks on Journalist Kristen Holmes Following Heated Oval Office Response [AI-Related Harms Have Exploded in Recent Years. Here's What the Data Says](/video/RS0vFMvf/) ### AI-Related Harms Have Exploded in Recent Years. Here's What the Data Says --- ## Transcript I want to maybe just start again on this in this big picture question and ask, what have we gotten wrong as we think back to the past? What have we gotten wrong about farmer prosperity? We have made increasing productivity, but not enough. So basically we have done it in piecemeal, but not as a food system as a whole. So we have now better varieties, definitely a huge advancement in genetics, a huge investment in the mechanics or machinery, a huge investment in in fertilizer, for example. But we haven't packaged it yet to be as impactful as it should be. So farmer today might have a good variety, but not enough good soil, not a healthy soil, or might have good varieties and soil, but not enough water and not the capacity to irrigate or sometimes can increase productivity, but they don't have energy for processing that food or for storing that food. So I think really for a very long time, we have been silenced and we have done that. And I think the ministries, the universities, the the research institutions have been obstacles. Now, we for the last I think, five years or six years, we have been talking about agri food system or food systems since. As a matter of fact, we got the United Nations Food System Summit in 2021. Then the things have become a bit different. But I think science has matured dramatically just in the last five years, not alone last ten years. So right now we could do much more. But to do that much more, we need to come from different disciplines. And it doesn't mean that we all need to change and be system level, but we could be ten different disciplines that we are vertically very good at. But we come together to make the system better. And that's what we need to do. Because unless the system is good as a whole, we won't get those farmer prosperity that Alice mentioned. So maybe just to pull on that thread a little bit and just ask, where does that coordination, that orchestration happen to bring together the system and to, to break down those silos that you allude to? I think there is many multilateral institutions that does that. FAO will be one of them. For example, as as a whole CCR on the research side, because we cover all of this from soil health to water scarcity or water use efficiency, to nutrient use efficiency, plant animals, but also fisheries. So those institutions are able to bring it together. But you can find it also at the national level, at the company's level or at all levels. We don't have a big, bold. You know, in strategy, we call it the B hack, the big, hairy, audacious goal. We don't have that in many governments in the continent. And that's what we need to have. And to see the opportunity that agrifood systems should be at the centre piece of transforming the continent economically in the next 25 to 35 years, provided that we make that youth population the 40% of the global workforce. Workforce, agrifood system skilled. So this to me is the way to look at it. And therefore it is fundamentally a challenge of governance. It's a challenge of strategy. And it's a challenge of implementation in a consistent and disciplined manner. And for that to happen, we need to bring us into the handset. The pieces together. Yeah. Um, whether in terms of productivity, whether in terms of investment, uh, you know, uh, whether in terms of coordination. I, I was like, I was keynote speaker at the Agra, uh, 20th anniversary event in Nairobi two days ago or three days ago. And I said that African countries do not need ministries of agriculture. African countries need food systems clusters as the basis for planning and execution because it ties into too many things. Meanwhile, our countries look at agriculture as some nation area and that bypasses by 80% its potential. I'll stop here. That's great. That's that's a great way to frame it. I want to just add to a point of. Kingsley, like he mentioned, how much of the GDP per country is agricultural and the problem the metrics are bad. So if you look at agricultural productivity is accounted as agriculture, fisheries, animal husbandry. When you go into processing, that goes into industry. And that's where the numbers. Sometimes if you go and you Google, you'll find most countries agriculture is contributing 3%, 5% defense because they don't calculate on the right. And that's why the metrics are very important. We'll hopefully dig into processing a little bit as well. And the opportunity there. But Timmy, I want to come to you and maybe we've been talking about sort of the country level and the sort of international collaboration level. But I want to come to, you know, you're working with smallholder farmers across Africa, connecting them with financing, with support, connecting them to markets. And, you know, um, I'm curious In some ways that's a systems approach, right? For farmers. And so I'm curious how this conversation leads to you. And then what is missing from the conversation in rooms like these, from what you might hear from farmers themselves on the ground, who you work with. Okay. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. I'm here to speak to these issues. Well, for us, because we operate more at the at the country level, um, hands on smallholder farmer, um, approach. Right. We like to see the small farmer as the major engine room actually for everything that goes on within the system, right? If, if smallholder farmers, if you consider contribute over 80% of what we consume, uh, across Africa, right. It means that if we must reimagine prosperity for the farmer or even for agriculture or even sustainability of the industry, then we must imagine the smallholder farmers as the as the centerpiece, All right. The the real engine room. So we like to see ourselves as as smallholder farmer obsessed, meaning that we are taking an approach of a 360 concern for smallholder farmer. We're looking into how much the lack of access to financing. Right? We can we can cut the big names, the big collaborations and all of that. But if this is not trickling down, it's more the farmer who probably does not even have a financial footprint, cannot get access to some of these big guys who will fund. And there's a problem, right? These guys also then gets, um, exploited by middlemen who after they're giving their best, they do not have any market for their commodities, right? So what we try to do is to provide that level of visibility for them with a technology driven approach, right? Where they are credit scored, right. And then there is a lot of transparency that the institutions can then see and then, um, come to their it. All right. That level of financial feasibility, um, agronomic best practices as well. And then importantly, um, to unlock value for them in terms of markets. All right. She was trying to talk about some things that happened in silos right the other time, which is very important, right? When the small farmer eventually does what they know how to do best, and they do not have the commissary to fight in terms of offtake, then that becomes a problem. So what we try to do also is to ensure that they have ready markets for their commodities, right? So we try to emphasize the need to look at the smallholder farmer as, as as an important person, as an important entity within the value chain. Otherwise we can't unlock the real value because if the farmer doesn't get value for what he does, then there can be prosperity for him. Because again, you know, we, we, we also try to ensure that we make, um, agriculture conversations very lucrative to the youth when a youth understands that he can go to farm, and then someone who is working, maybe some in some other place can earn more, then agriculture becomes a cycle. Alright, but when they are able to understand that there's a lot of value, there's a lot of prosperity that they can unlock from their right by actually ensuring that the small farmer has access, full blown access and full to explore their potential and get the value back, then they are able to give more and earn more. Well well said. So I might return to you with a similar question. You're working in communities, working with with farmers on restoring the landscape. You're also in rooms like this in the global conversation. Um, and you know, what is the gap there to bridge between the sort of work that's happening on the ground and the big conversation, and what's the best way to institutionalize that, to help everyone understand and work together across this, this gap? I would say when we speak about former prosperity and the gaps that we are seeing on the ground. There are three things that we must align on. And the first component is the aspect of productivity and increased yields, that this does not automatically mean that there's prosperity. And the second component on innovation is that innovation. For it to succeed and be successful, it must be accessible and must also work for the farmers. And the third component, which is also a gap, is the fact that we must begin to look at water and nature as infrastructure for agriculture and production at the same time. And what do I mean by this is the fact that if we look at what is happening on the ground, many times when a farmer has increased yields, we tend to look at the farmer as a farmer who has prospered. But again, there are challenges of inputs that are expensive. There are challenges where the farmers has to navigate a market that is not fair, even in terms of prizes for the farmer, and at the same time they are post-harvest losses and different components also that are lost within the value chain because a lot of the products are not even processed within the same locality for the farmers. So I think in the global context, we need to look at the entire value chain and what exactly we mean when we speak about prosperity. And a lot of times innovation and technology is an enabler for the farmers on the ground. But we must shift how this is approached because technology and innovation is not supposed to realign or make the farmers realign their lives to accommodate it. But it's supposed to actually look at how it's addressing the realities on the ground and what exactly the farmer is doing on the ground. And, uh, when it comes to our natural assets, I also see within the agricultural conversations, we are treating nature, our natural assets and water, soil health as environmental issues on the side. But truly, these are the foundations of climate resilience. They are the foundations of food production. So we must have them at the centre and avoid addressing the issues in silos for us to be able to address the critical needs that are on the ground with the farmers that produce the food that we consume. And that's why if we are to have a change, we must invest in the entire value chain. We must invest in all these components for the farmers, beyond only investing in the yields within the farmers that are producing the food that the whole world is consuming. Very well said. Um, I want to ask you. So you mentioned yield and yield is an insufficient metric. Uh, it's also easy to, to latch on to because it's, it's such an easy sort of number, right? It's something that we can easily understand when we start talking about systems thinking, it's much harder to really grapple with, to quantify. Are there better metrics or are there better ways that are simple to understand and explain what it would look like to do everything you're talking about? Exactly. So one of the components that we must look at, and this goes down to the work that the farmers and the people on the ground are already doing. We must go beyond looking at the inputs and look at market access for the farmers. Look at also the climate resilience component for the farmers, because for farmers that are in areas that are completely degraded, it is almost impossible for them to be able to continue adapting to a changing climate. So how are we strengthening the farmers and ensure that the farmers have actually more security? They have access to these markets and also when they produce their output, how do we make sure that the costs are also fair to farmers? Because they put in all the work, they put in all the labour. But at the end of the day, who smiles to the bank? So we have to look at also the profitability and the value that the farmer gets from being able to put in the work to be able to produce our food. I love, I love profitability as a metric of sustainability. That's such an important point. I know you Isfahan what you want to come in and I and I want to just ask you as well. You can say whatever you wanted to add, but also ask you and Kingsley as well, just, you know, talking a bit about this value chain issue and bringing value chains, you know, to communities, to countries rather than having them elsewhere. What can be done at the policy level, at the national level, etc., the institutional level to help do that. But of course, you know, add whatever else you were going to add. Actually, I want to go back to the yield gap. So because it's very peculiar to Africa. So Africa yield gap, the yield normally it's calculated how much you produce per unit of land and unit of water for example, or inputs or how many liters you will your cow produce or eggs per chicken. So it's very, very easy to compare between different ecologies and geographies. So Africa Gap year. Gap is huge. South Africa produced per unit about 20% of what was produced in the other places. So it's very important for me as a concept. It's very important because it shows us what we need to to improve the second one. On the climate and sustainability or the measurement of greenhouse gas in general. Again, it's per unit. So when we talk about livestock, what you are saying, it's methane produced per cow. It doesn't matter if that cow is producing 100l of milk a day, or how we have it in many countries in Africa, which is hardly about ten liters per or eight liters per per day. So that's where that gap is super duper important because if we increase yield, it can increase profitability for the farmers. Absolutely. Looking at the whole value chain, but also it will reduce their footprint if we keep calculating the the the environmental footprint of a farmer in many countries in Africa on eight litres per day of his cow versus in Europe or other places of 100l per day. It's not fair. And that's where really it's very important to address it. And it's very important. It's very easy. It's also there is a lot of things that could be done to increase that yield gap. And you could do it progressively even with the technologies we have today. The other aspect that I want to really bring in, in that discussion on the yield gap is that is that over the last there is a new study that shows over the last 50 years or so in Africa, most of the increase of productivity happened by clearing new land. So in in absolute terms, yes, we increase productivity. But it was so low that really to feed the the increased population in Africa, we needed to clean a lot of land. So I want to just make sure that we do really keep that gap because it's very important. It's connected to prosperity. It's connected to how we calculate footprint, environmental footprint. And it is also related to how could you really reduce clearing new land by increasing productivity through new methodologies, through animal health, through different agronomic practices? And of course, this is I'm talking only about the productivity, everything you said about the value chain and and the remaining of the processing and transformation. It's very important as well. Good point. Um, an important to remember yield gap as a metric. Um, I mean Kingsley, do you, do you want to I don't know, I can repeat the question just about the value chain and how to think about ways to make sure that the value chain is also happening locally rather than being happening elsewhere. Um, what are what are the right ways to approach that? Well, I think that, um, when you talk about the value chain, the value chain in the agri food sector or agri food businesses is quite complex and quite vast. Um, there are a number of things that, and it takes the government and it takes the private sector. We often complain that we don't have enough private sector investment, but one of the reasons, and this is my view about African development strategy generally, is that you can never have a prosperous country, no matter the amount of private sector activity, if you do not have competent and capable governance and public policy. You, you you hear a lot of people get confused about this. Oh, you know, private sector, the markets, the markets. You know, you need the hands of governments at the will not to crowd out the private sector, but to create an enabling environment for the private sector. So when we talk about the value chain, there are a lot of things that governments need to do. First land titles. How many investors or financial centres in Dubai or London or Paris want to come and invest in agri food systems that are not supported by properly titled land owners? Meanwhile, 90% of rural land for small scale farmers in Africa don't have formal structural structural titles. So you're not going to get any real investment at the level that we need it. So this is number one. Number two. Um, they, you know, we need to make sure that processing, for example, things like processing happen more near where the farming takes place. Not always just in the cities and all that. So these are the kinds of approaches I think that can be taken towards, you know, um improving the value chain. And we will begin to see increased prosperity. Capital always looks for profit. That's number one thing you need to know. Two capital is a coward. So capital looks forward to make money. And if it sees an enabling environment it's very bold and it moves in. But if the environment is not enabling, it is just such a coward. And and then we complain. So so that's, you know, some take I have on it. Capital is a coward. That's the way the light. I'll remember. Timmy, do you want to come in and kiss? And especially, you know, you're working on the ground with with smallholder farmers and and providing finance and helping them access finance. How do you think about some of these questions? Very important thing, actually. I've, I've, I've, I've always very recently reached the concern around governance and government policies. Right. And he rightly said, as much as we desire private sector collaboration, investment and, and what have you, I am concerned really around policy shifts, right. I think in Africa we need to look particularly around, um policy insurance. All right. We have a lot of policies. We have a lot of policies. We are not deficient of policies around here. Right. But how do we, how do we implement the one that was issued or, or um, rolled out yesterday Before a new one comes in. So you imagine the situation where a farmer or a platform that actually directly supports farmers, right, is trying to work hand in hand with a policy that supports maybe the export of, of, of, of cashew or something. Right. And then lots of investments have gone into it. And then the following day you're getting the new policy around that. What that does right is, is, is to, is to, is to make inconsistent the effort that has gone into it. And of course, no, no serious investor, private sector or even from wherever wants that, that level of inconsistencies. All right. So we need to be able to, um, ensure our policies in, in, in such a way that we are getting the results. We're not just, um, feeling very good about the policies, feeling very good about, about how good they are, how forward thinking. Yeah, the, the forward thinking one that happened yesterday. How have we insured it? How have we ensured that it has produced the right result? And I think he also mentioned something that we are actively working on, which is around decentralised processing. All right. We need to do currently we we we are doing something called value addition. All right. Actually, I was in partnership with Agra. All right. Where farmers do not just produce but they are able to ah ah, have the opportunity to have decentralised processing, um, arrangements where they can add value to their rise, to their savings, to their maize, such that, again, it brings more value to them and their prosperity is further future proofed. Right. Because again, if you, if you, if you, if you think about it, there is a holistic problem within all of this, right? So it might take it might take a whole lot to transport, um, rice paddy from somewhere in Bauchi State to somewhere in Lagos. Once, if you have a processing facility just close to them. They can clean up and then they can and they can make it ready for export or for offtake, right. So that way they have an end to end coverage of their commodities. They are getting value almost immediately. There is no post-harvest loss as much as possible. Right? When you're ensuring that from the farm, you are adding some value and then it's going coming back up, more value for you. Well said. Okay, we don't have much time left, but I want to go back to something that Alice said, you know, quoting Kofi Annan, uh, just about how Africa can, can feed the world, not just providing food for Africa, but the world has much to learn and to gain. And I know that this has been, um, something that you've written about, you know, the, the, what the world could learn from Africa, but from the global South more broadly. And I, and I think as we sort of round out this conversation, I might give you an opportunity to just talk a little bit about that. What are the innovations that are happening here in Africa that the world can and should learn from. Um. I think if we look only at the climate change, for example. So Africa is very famous by being one of the most fragile areas to climate change. And they have been grappling with it for decades. What we are seeing now, it's the same climate variability moving to other to the northern hemisphere in general. And believe me, I spent most of the summer in Europe and it was super hot, very, very hot. So I was in London for London Climate Week. And as I walked in, I, the officer in immigration asked me, what are you coming here for? I said, it's climate London Climate week. He said, no, no, we cancelled it. Everything is cancelled because it's very hot. I said, no, I don't think you're going to cancel London Climate Week because you need it, because it's getting really hot and you need to to better discuss it. So definitely those adaptation. Adaptation strategies that have been adopted have been tried in African contexts could be used in. In general, in Africa. There is. There is definitely a lack of infrastructure that makes having the value chain very, very long. But I think now with the AI, with advisory services, with the way we can really look at big data, we could make very quick and very fast impact and, and improvement. And I think that that thinks that the fact that you're going to do it on an almost a bare system that requires so many bots to be done, it could be really an exciting way of doing development. So, so in a nutshell, climate change definitely, and all the strategies around it, but also changing the system from its governance to this private sector to production to processing using the best technologies. And that's what I think. If I was an investor, I would come and invest here and try it because it's quite exciting to really see that maybe what took Europe or northern Europe or Northern America to develop over 50 years, we could do it here in five years with the right technologies, the right governance and and the right policies and investment, of course. Well that's great. Okay. And I'm going to ask one more quick question then. Just a quick question for all of you to end on. But I just Elizabeth, I want to go to you because we, we, you know, thinking forward, thinking a bit about what Africa, you know, has, has to offer. And the situation that it's in is the youth, the youth opportunity, the number of youth. And of course, your work helps empower youth across the continent. And so one thing I want to ask is how do we how do we reframe climate smart agriculture to really involve youth, to get them excited and to be a part of this next generation of innovators on the continent. So one of the things that we need to look at when involving young people in agriculture, it's a component that everybody is trying to say, how do we involve young people? How do we get them interested? And I think it would be unfair for us to push an agricultural system that is not profitable and somehow still expect the young people to be interested in it. So we have to make sure that there is some components of value and profitability and also support, especially when it comes to scaling the innovations that are being championed and led by young people. Africa is a young continent, but at the same time, we are not short of ideas. We are not short of solutions. There is so much innovation that is happening on the ground in climate, energy, sustainable agro systems, building solutions that can shape the next agricultural and the next food systems in our continent today. So what is lacking at the moment, and where the gap exists is the fact that there is not enough one patient capital that is supporting these solutions to be able to actually realize the impact that they hold for the continent. And also when it comes to components of market linkages and supporting these solutions to actually move from the early stages and ideation to actually scalable and investable solutions. So we need to put more investments in looking at the whole component on how we actually prepare our young people and the young generation for the decade that is coming for the system that we're trying to change. Because at the end of the day, it is the young people of today that are going to live within that world. So how best are we preparing them? Are we only looking into them as beneficiaries, as participants, or are we looking to them as solution providers and actually empowering them fully, meaningfully to actually enhance and help us be able to get the future of our continent where it actually needs to get to. Excellent. Okay. We're going to have just almost like a lightning round of sorts just to close out the conversation. Obviously here we're celebrating 20 years looking backwards. It's what's been accomplished and the challenges and also looking forward to what comes next. And I think just to, to get from each of you, if you were to direct the next dollar of investment in systems in Africa, where would you allocate that, that dollar? What are the most important investments needed right now? And so just a very brief reflection on that question. And we can just go along the lines, starting with with things that. I think that, um, the. The whole question of if there's one thing I would say that has to be done. Uh, I would say change the System of titling, create certainty of ownership and titles of land, and you will see natural attraction of of capital. I think this is something I lay a lot of emphasis on. Great. Okay. I would say the transformation of our food systems cannot be left to the farmers alone. We need everybody on board the private sector, the government, the development partners. Everybody has a role to play because at the end of the day, it is the farmers that are helping feed all of society and the world. And if I was to allocate a dollar, I would put it to the farmer, because if the farmer prospers, then it means that our food systems are going to be resilient. But as long as our farmers remain poor, I don't think there is any amount of innovation or technology that is going to count to them to help us transform our food systems. Absolutely. I mean, the same page with her. Um, we need to create more possibilities for farmers. More possibilities, more possibilities, more innovative solutions wherein the youth can actually explore. Right. I agree, currently we are creating something that is called a wild west where um um farmers and, and, and players can calculate how much of carbon sequestration that can get, create more possibilities. Just think about the farmer, think about the, the, the, the, the end to end ecosystem and, and ensure that from every stage of the way, every step of the way, they can unlock value, just create more possibilities for the farmer because we have immense potential for, um, more people to come in and make themselves prosperous within the industry. So just a thought experiment right now, just, uh, for me, really, it's the governance piece. So it's the system, invest in the system to make it coherent, to make it efficient, to Sufficient inclusive to make sure it works. And really, we hear we heard a lot about Ethiopia being self-sufficient in wheat, irrigate using irrigated wheat over three years. So a country like Ethiopia took three years to be self-sufficient in wheat after the Ukraine crisis. Today I heard from the Minister of Niger that they are food secure after three years of exactly the same, so they are food secure as a population after three years. So I think really a political will is very important because when you have it, then you look at the system and you create the enabling environment for all the artists or the other actors to play together. Well, thank you all for this great discussion. My takeaway is that system approach is needed. I know that's a focus of Agra. Certainly that's part of why we have dinners like this is so people could come together and have these kinds of conversations. Thank you. Please give a round of applause for this panel. ```json {"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"TIME Impact Dinner: Reimagining Farmer Prosperity: Building Africa’s Next Food Systems Frontier","description":"Africa’s agricultural productivity has grown in recent decades, but more progress needs to be made to improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers and create lasting economic growth, experts agreed at the TIME Impact Dinner on Wednesday Sep. 2 in Kigali, Rwanda. 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