Farming First

In parts of West Africa, cotton farmers have started to notice something worrying: products that used to work well against pests are becoming less reliable. It doesn’t happen overnight, and it doesn’t look the same everywhere, but the trend is there. Resistance is building. What is encouraging, though, is how the region is responding.

Across the Africa Middle East region, an often-overlooked challenge exists in the background of food production. After pesticides are used, their empty containers do not simply disappear. Without proper collection and disposal, they are often discarded in the environment, posing serious risks to human health and ecosystems. Countries like Zambia have introduced Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) frameworks, but implementation gaps remain.

As social entrepreneurs, philanthropic leaders, impact investors, and policy influencers convene at the Skoll World Forum, an annual platform dedicated to advancing systems-level solutions and scaling impact, this year’s focus on moving from ambition to results brings a critical question into perspective for Africa: why does strong policy ambition so often fail to translate into outcomes at scale? Africa has never lacked ambition for its food systems.

A thriving food system is rooted in a thriving market that delivers affordable, safe, nutritious and diverse diets. Yet nutrition is not usually embedded in how companies compete, allocate resources or build brands. Public health goals and market incentives are often not aligned. Without clear incentives, companies have limited reasons to invest in improving nutritional quality at scale. This challenge shows up clearly across food systems.

Smallholder farmers in low-income countries across Africa, Asia, and the Americas will benefit from $38.75 million in new grant funding aimed at strengthening food security, improving farmer incomes, and building resilience to climate and economic shocks. The funding was announced by the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP), a multilateral financing and partnership platform that supports beneficiary-led investments to improve food and nutrition security in low-income countries.

When we talk about food loss and waste, the conversation often centres on the end of the food chain: wasted surplus in supermarkets or leftovers scraped into household bins. However, energy scarcity means farmers in many parts of the world cannot efficiently store, process or transport what they grow and losing food as a result. In 2022, only 46 per cent of Tanzanians had reliable access to grid electricity. Living without power affects nearly every stage of smallholder farmers’ work.

Huub Lelieveld has been named the 2026 World Food Prize Laureate. Lelieveld led a global food safety movement that has prevented millions of cases of foodborne illness. In doing so, he has helped dismantle barriers to trade and humanitarian aid, while also reducing food loss and waste. Lelieveld marshalled a movement across 113 countries to deliver the scientific evidence for modern regulations, legislation and international standards that safeguard the world’s food supply.

As leaders gather for the 14th Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization in Yaoundé from 26 to 29 March 2026, one principle should guide the global agenda: trade must remain open, fair and rules-based. For Africa in particular, strengthening open and predictable trade systems will be critical to unlocking the continent’s agricultural potential, accelerating innovation and strengthening food security.

Across global food systems, women farmers contribute everyday to agricultural production, rural economies and community wellbeing. Yet, their leadership often remains constrained by structural barriers such as limited access to land, financial resources and knowledge. In 2026, the International Year of the Woman Farmer places renewed global attention on these realities. It provides a timely moment to reflect on the changes needed to enable women’s full and equitable participation in agriculture.

In a genebank outside Nairobi, a technician scans a barcode label on a seed envelope. Instantly, a screen fills with data – where the seed was collected, when it was last tested and whether it has duplicates safely stored elsewhere. Just a few years ago, this information might have been kept in notebooks or scattered across spreadsheets. Today, it’s part of a regional data network linking genebanks across Africa.