Dr. Canisius Kanangire, Executive Director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF)
Kigali, June 9, 2025 – African leaders have been urged to prioritize Intra-African Trade to help achieve food security across the continent.
Dr. Canisius Kanangire, Executive Director of the African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF) who made the call believes that Intra-African Trade has the capacity to close the gap that hinders farmers ability to benefit from innovations intended to improve their livelihoods make food available across the continent.
For him, Intra-African Trade would encourage farmers and scientist to come out with Agriculture innovations that would help farmers to produce more food with less efforts and as well encourage more youth into farming.
He explained that AATF and the Government of Rwanda, through the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources (MINAGRI), are co-hosting the 2ND Edition of the African Conference on Agricultural Technology (ACAT 2025) aimed at closing the agricultural innovation gap for good across Africa.
The conference brought together experts, policymakers, farmers and practitioners in the agriculture sector in Africa and across the globe under the theme “NextGen Ag-Tech Solutions for Africa’s Farmers” ongoing at the Kigali Convention Centre.
According the Executive Director, the goal of AATF is to highlight the persistent barriers farmers face in accessing innovative technologies, foster discussions and capacity building around these obstacles, and increase policy-level commitment at both national and continental levels to drive adoption and agricultural transformation.
“ACAT is a dynamic platform for stakeholders committed to transforming Africa’s food and nutrition systems through innovation.
“It is also serving as a knowledge-generation and sharing platform to support policy and investment decisions across the continent” he said.
For his part, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Republic of Rwanda and key note speaker for the ACAT 2025, Dr. Cyubahiro Marc Bagabe used the opportunity to encourage investors and donors to invest more into Ag-Tech Solutions especially in Africa.
He was of the view that the continent had the capacity in terms of human resources to promote agriculture technology but needed more capital investment and enabling policy at all levels of government to achieve this goal.
He mentioned that must farmers in Africa are depending on outdated tools in their daily activities making farming a difficult venture for our smallholder farmers and not encouraging the youth to go into Agriculture.
“It is crucial to adopt a farmer-centric design approach in developing solutions but the digital divide presents a significant challenge, as many smallholder farmers, particularly in rural areas, lack access to digital technologies and the necessary skills for effective utilization.
“This gap hinders their ability to benefit from innovations intended to improve their livelihoods and so this conference aims to address this critical issue by bringing farmers’ voices to the forefront and exploring practical solutions” he added.
Sharing their experiences during the farmers dialogue session, a farmer from Eastern Africa and President of the Eastern Africa Farmers Federation Mrs. Elizbeth and his colleague Mr. Ishmael from the Southern Africa Confederation of Agriculture Unions, South Africa pointed out the urgent need to reposition farmers from passive recipients to active partners in agricultural research and innovation to hinder progress in the sector.
Their call was that African agriculture must be built around the farmers themselves who are the major stakeholder in the sector.
“Most research’s focuses on scientifically relevant issues, which don’t always reflect the real, day-to-day concerns of farmers in Africa.
“Agricultural transformation cannot happen without strong farmers structures that include policymakers as key players.
“We want this conference to ensure that farmers are not just beneficiaries of agricultural policies but active contributors in shaping them.
“Technology is non-negotiable if African needs to become food sufficient as we are all discussing this morning.
“We believe that real change will only come if policies are backed by action, accountability and farmer inclusion at every level” they pointed out.
SOURCE: Dailyagric
