The African Green Revolution Forum (AGRF) is the world’s premier forum for African agriculture, bringing together stakeholders in the agricultural landscape to take practical actions and share lessons that will move African agriculture forward. The theme of the summit, “Feed the Cities, Grow the Continent: Leveraging Urban Food Markets to Achieve Sustainable Food Systems in Africa,” is a call to action to rethink our food systems to deliver resilient, better nourished, and more prosperous outcomes for all.
CGIAR has a significant presence at the summit this year, and will be showcasing the contribution of CGIAR Research to food systems, resilience, nutritious food, and markets and trade. Learn more about CGIAR’s role in transforming African food systems in a new blog by Claudia Sadoff, Executive Management Team Convener and Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact, CGIAR System Organization.
Use the links in the schedule below to tune in to hear about CGIAR’s forthcoming 2030 Research Strategy; kick off the Excellence in Agronomy initiative, bringing together the work of nine CGIAR Centers; join the launch of the CGIAR GENDER Platform, and much more.
Key events and activities
| TIME (CAT) | EVENT | DETAILS |
| Monday September 7th | ||
| 13:00–14:00 | Round table
Sustainable Agriculture Intensification to Feed the Cities and Grow Africa CGIAR System Organization, IFPRI, WLE |
This Commission on Sustainable Agriculture Intensification round table will highlight the important role of innovation in sustainable agricultural intensification to support the profound changes needed in rural and urban food systems. See the program and watch the recording.
Ruben Echeverria, Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, and Alice Ruhweza, CGIAR System Board member, will speak in the event. |
| 15:00–16:30 | Pre-event
Scaling for Food Systems Transformation in the Post-COVID Era CIMMYT |
This session will showcase action commitments from organizations that are supporting scaling, and explore how scaling principles, and experiences with COVID-19 to date, might inform a pivot from recovery to broader systems change through a decisive shift in priorities, funding and modalities to improve resilience and accelerate responsible and inclusive food and agricultural systems transformation. Watch the recording.
Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT, and Bram Govaerts, Interim Deputy Director General of CIMMYT, will speak in the session. |
| 15:00–17:00 | Pre-event
Excellence in Agronomy AfricaRice, CGIAR Big Data, CIMMYT, ICRISAT, IFPRI, IITA
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This session will launch the Excellence in Agronomy (EiA) 2030 initiative on sustainable intensification of smallholder farming systems, explore linkages with other initiatives operating in the agronomy-at-scale space, and solicit feedback from the stakeholder community, including investors, on key thematic areas for integration into the initiative. Learn more about the initiative here.
Featuring speakers Martin Kropff (CIMMYT), Bernard Vanlauwe (IITA), Tilahun Amede (ICRISAT), Kazuki Saito (AfricaRice), Meklit Chernet (IITA), Medha Devare (IFPRI, CGIAR Big Data) and Jonathan Odhong (IITA). |
| 17:00–18:00 | Pre-event
Rise Up Together: Women’s role in Africa’s Green Revolution The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, CGIAR GENDER, CGIAR System Council, CIFOR, CIP |
This panel will discuss the often-hidden role women play within agriculture in Africa and how to give women more voice within agriculture, reflecting on the roles of data, evidence, and framing in efforts to move the discussion forward. Learn more about the event (event page, video) and watch the recording.
Featuring speakers Nicoline de Haan (CGIAR GENDER), Stephen Potter (CGIAR System Council), Markus Ihalainen (CIFOR), Eileen Nchanji (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) and Vivian Atakos (CIP). |
| 17:00–18:30 | Pre-event
Agriculture Technologies for Feeding Cities ICARDA, IITA |
The session will examine what Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) brings to a country and how technologies and partnerships are helping farmers across agro-ecological zones, highlighting how TAAT focuses on value chain promotion in selected food security commodities, and stimulates conversations on sustainable agricultural transformation. Learn more about the event (website, video) and watch the recording.
Featuring speakers Ken Dashiell (IITA), Zewdie Bishaw (ICARDA) and Abass Adebayo (IITA). |
| Tuesday September 8th | ||
| 11:00–13:00 | Parallel session
Developing Resilience Frameworks for Sustainable Production and Consumption ICRAF |
This session will showcase cities with the best practices on sustainable food systems, identifying appropriate innovations and enterprises for building resilient food systems. Watch the recording.
Shenggen Fan, CGIAR System Board member, and Tony Simons, Director General of ICRAF, will speak on the Panel. |
| 14:00–15:30 | Results Factory
Policy Symposium | AASR Report Launch: Feeding Africa’s Cities CGIAR System Organization |
This session launches the report, which assesses the opportunities, challenges and policies required to enable African farmers and agribusinesses to serve rapidly growing urban food markets. Watch the recording.
Ismahane Elouafi, CGIAR System Board member, will speak on the Panel. |
| 14:00–15:30 | Results Factory
Policy Symposium | Building Resilience through Data and Digital Platforms The The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT, CGIAR Big Data |
This symposium will highlight how innovative agricultural data systems and digital platforms are promoting adaptation and resilience across the food system, especially in the wake of crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the locust outbreak and famine. Watch the recording.
Brian King, Coordinator of the Platform for Big Data in Agriculture, and Caroline Mwongera Mugambi, Policies and Institutions Theme Leader for the Alliance of Biodiversity International and CIAT, will speak in the session. |
| Wednesday September 9th | ||
| 14:00–15:45 | Results Factory
Policy Symposium | Advancing Gender and Nutrition: Engaging Nutritionally Vulnerable Urban Consumers CIMMYT, HarvestPlus |
This symposium will discuss ways to better identify high-risk and high-priority groups in urban environments, and ensure that policy to improve urban food systems reaches and benefits vulnerable communities. Watch the recording.
Martin Kropff, Director General of CIMMYT, and Arun Baral, CEO of HarvestPlus, will speak on the Panel. |
| 16:00–18:00 | Plenary
Nutritious Food | Growing Africa’s Food – African Leaders Unpack Nutrition Indicators CIP |
This plenary session will showcase ways to create demand for African products that fuel diverse, healthy diets with the safety and quality every consumer needs. Find more information on the event page and watch the recording.
Barbara Wells, Director General of CIP will participate in the debate. |
| 18:15–20:00 | Plenary
Red Threads | Fireside Chat: Healthy Food; Healthy Cities CGIAR System Organization |
In a fireside chat, high-level guests will link the way nutritious food creates a healthy city, through greater social equity, healthy people and an invigorated workforce. Watch the recording.
Claudia Sadoff, Managing Director, Research Delivery and Impact, of the CGIAR System Organization, will speak on the Panel. |
| Thursday September 10th | ||
| 11:00–13:00 | Parallel session
Strengthening Agri-Food Data Systems CGIAR System Board |
This session will explore ways of advancing sustainable food and nutrition security data and market information gathering through the use of digital technology in crop production forecasting for decision-making. Watch the recording. Alice Ruhweza, CGIAR System Board member, will speak on the Panel. |
See the full program and register here.
Follow CGIAR’s participation on Twitter.
Additional resources
| PUBLICATIONS |
| Scaling agricultural mechanization services in smallholder farming systems (CIMMYT) |
| VIDEOS |
| The cash cow grass (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT)
Biodiversity: a building block for a healthier future (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) Farmer citizen science for climate adaptation (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) A message from the farm: CGIAR research is development (CGIAR) CGIAR works with communities and farmers to address some of the world’s biggest issues (CGIAR) Innovative technology is helping farmers around the world combat the effects of climate change (CGIAR) Rise up together: Women’s role in transforming Africa’s food systems (CGIAR GENDER) One-minute science: Khondoker Mottaleb on how to meet food demand by 2030 (CIMMYT) TAAT mobile cassava processing plant: Increasing income and wealth of nations (IITA) TAAT’s pathway to scale up brings hope to maize farmers in Kenya (IITA) TAAT’s transformational footprint in Ethiopia, Zambia, Zimbabwe & Sudan (IITA) |
| BLOGS + NEWS |
| Super Flour to boost nutrition in Uganda (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT)
More nutritious flour for urban consumers and a better price for farmers (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) Youth economic empowerment through mechanization in Tanzania (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) Women entrepreneurs empowered through beans – Christella, Sheila (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) Engaging Kenyan youth in bean business to boost income (The Alliance of Bioversity International and CIAT) Smartphones drive data collection revolution, boost climate-smart agriculture in Bangladesh (CIMMYT) See additional blogs and news below. |
