Regenerative food systems in Africa: scaling solutions to empower smallholder farmers
06 Mar 25 | Weekly podcast
Finance: why nature-based food production solutions make sense
This week: Sajeev Mohankumar, from investor group the FAIRR initiative, talks with Ian Welsh abou...
On 28th November 2023, Innovation Forum and Bayer Crop Science hosted the webinar: 'Regenerative food systems in Africa: scaling solutions to empower smallholder farmers'.
Click here to watch the full video recording.
Click here to watch the recording in French translation.
Over the coming decades, smallholder farmers throughout Africa will play a pivotal role in supporting the continent’s economic development and enabling food security. However, these farmers currently face numerous constraints that hinder their productivity and profitability. Challenges include a lack of support and access to resources such as financing, technology, inputs, and markets.
Accelerating Africa’s regenerative agricultural transformation requires a farmer-centric, ecosystem-led approach that involves actors across the whole value chain. Impactful partnerships and collaborations between farmers, governments, developmental organisations, entrepreneurs, food companies, and stakeholders must yield innovative solutions to help smallholder farmers overcome this complex set of constraints. Access to resources and opportunities through resilient value chains is essential to optimising profitability and improving smallholder livelihoods.
Our panel of experts drew on from real-world examples and experiences, as they discussed:
Click here to watch the recording in French translation.
Over the coming decades, smallholder farmers throughout Africa will play a pivotal role in supporting the continent’s economic development and enabling food security. However, these farmers currently face numerous constraints that hinder their productivity and profitability. Challenges include a lack of support and access to resources such as financing, technology, inputs, and markets.
Accelerating Africa’s regenerative agricultural transformation requires a farmer-centric, ecosystem-led approach that involves actors across the whole value chain. Impactful partnerships and collaborations between farmers, governments, developmental organisations, entrepreneurs, food companies, and stakeholders must yield innovative solutions to help smallholder farmers overcome this complex set of constraints. Access to resources and opportunities through resilient value chains is essential to optimising profitability and improving smallholder livelihoods.
Our panel of experts drew on from real-world examples and experiences, as they discussed:
- The current financial, economic and technological barriers preventing many African smallholders from implementing more sustainable farming techniques
- How can value-chain stakeholders best work together to build capacity, and support farmer-centric solutions to smallholder farmers challenges within fragmented value chains?
- The role of policy changes and support mechanisms in fostering robust, efficient and inclusive smallholder ecosystems
- Examples of new and innovative technologies that can improve rural access to financing, for improved livelihoods and climate-smart farming
This webinar was moderated by Toby Webb, founder of Innovation Forum.
This is the second part in the Focus on Farmers webinar series, hosted in partnership with Bayer Crop Science. To listen to the first part in this series, focusing on the regenerative transition in Europe, click here.
To find out more about Bayer's work in this area, please visit:
About Bayer in Africa | Bayer South Africa
Bayer Innovation Summit 2023 | Bayer Global
London
19th - 20th March 2025