The need for Africa to transition from reactive emergency food interventions to building robust, self-sustaining food systems was the dominant theme at a high-level side event organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB) at the African Food Systems Forum (AFSF) 2026.

Key stakeholders, including Nigeria’s Honourable Minister of Agriculture and Food Security, Senator Abubakar Kyari, CON, emphasised that while recent global shocks exposed critical vulnerabilities, they also generated valuable lessons that must shape the future of agricultural investment on the continent.

The Vulnerability of Disruption

In his keynote address, Minister Kyari highlighted how intertwined global factors—from the Black Sea conflict disrupting grain supplies to climate shocks testing local production—have repeatedly strained African economies. He noted that even distant logistical bottlenecks, like issues in the Strait of Hormuz, directly impact local farmers by affecting fertiliser prices and availability.

“The source of the shock keeps changing, but the vulnerability it exposes remains remarkably familiar: a food system that depends on emergency intervention is not yet a resilient food system,” Kyari stated.

From Emergency to Catalyst: The AEFPF Success

A significant portion of the discussion centred on the remarkable success of the $1.5 billion African Emergency Food Production Facility (AEFPF). Established by the AfDB in response to the Black Sea crisis, the Facility exceeded its initial targets, producing over 45 million tonnes of food and reaching more than 15 million farmers across 35 countries.

Senator Kyari emphasised that the AEFPF’s success was not just about the rapid injection of capital. “The lesson is not simply that emergency financing worked,” he said. “It worked because finance was connected to seed, fertiliser, technology, and the national systems capable of getting them to farmers.”

Crucially, the Facility leveraged existing platforms, such as the Bank’s Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) program. TAAT had already successfully delivered heat-tolerant wheat varieties to 1.8 million farmers across seven countries, proving that the necessary agricultural technologies already exist on the continent.

Kyari noted, “The next challenge is therefore not proving that agricultural technologies work, but building the seed, research, extension, and financing systems that allow proven technologies to reach farmers at scale and remain accessible beyond an emergency.”

Beyond Production: Strengthening the Ecosystem

While boosting productivity is essential, the side event reinforced that it is only part of the equation.

Dr Martin Fregene, Director of Agriculture and Agro-Industry at the African Development Bank, was quoted by the Minister as highlighting the critical need to support the entire agricultural ecosystem surrounding the farmer.

“African farmers have demonstrated that they can adopt technology and raise productivity. What is often missing is the ecosystem around them: appropriate finance, extension, aggregation, storage, processing, and access to markets at a fair price,” says Dr Martin Fregene, Director, Agriculture and Agro-Industry, AfDB

Kyari echoed this sentiment, stressing that higher production is only sustainable when the economics work for the farmer. Investments in processing zones, such as Nigeria’s Special Agro-Industrial Processing Zones (SAPZ) Program, are vital for connecting production to markets and reducing post-harvest losses, ensuring that food security benefits both farmers and consumers.

A New Architecture for Agricultural Finance

The side event concluded with a call for a fundamental shift in how agricultural transformation is financed. Stakeholders agreed that the “isolated projects” approach must be replaced by a comprehensive financing architecture.

Kyari argued that different risks require different forms of capital. Governments must provide policy certainty and critical infrastructure, using public and concessional finance as catalysts to create conditions where private capital, with its innovation and commercial discipline, can follow.

He concluded that true resilience means having the capacity to absorb shocks without passing the full cost to farmers and households.

“The enduring legacy of the African Emergency Food Production Facility should therefore not simply be that Africa became better at responding to emergencies,” Kyari stated. “It should be that we use the lessons of emergency response to become better prepared for them.”

Scaling Innovation through Partnership

Complementing the discussion on resilience was a presentation by Dr Simeon Ehui, Director General of IITA and CGIAR Continental Director for Africa. He outlined how TAAT has created a practical model that mobilises CGIAR science and links it directly to large-scale agricultural investments financed by International Financial Institutions (IFIs).

Dr Ehui emphasised that TAAT’s model shifts the focus from merely scaling technology to solving specific national agricultural transformation challenges, ensuring innovations are aligned with national priorities, policy frameworks, and private-sector opportunities.

“TAAT has shown that the future of CGIAR is not only about generating excellent science—it is about ensuring that science is translated into investment, embedded in country priorities, and delivered at scale. That is how we transform African agriculture and improve the lives of millions of farmers.” — Dr Simeon Ehui, Director General, IITA / CGIAR Continental Director for Africa

By institutionalising the brokerage function of the TAAT Clearinghouse, Dr Ehui noted that CGIAR is strengthening its role as a trusted partner, helping countries move proven technologies from laboratories to landscapes for measurable development impact.

The event demonstrated a unified commitment across Africa to harness technological innovation and strategic partnerships, such as TAAT, to build a future in which the next shock finds the continent better prepared to feed its people.