Will the adoption of technologies such as genetically modified organisms be a solution to food insecurity in Africa?
Experts seem to think so.
With a rapidly increasing population, experts now suggest that there is a need to adopt new technologies to provide enough food for the continent.
"Having crops which are resistant to insects and diseases is very key to creating resilience in the farming sector,” AATF executive director Dr Canisius Kanangire said.
Kanangire said many regions have become vulnerable to the impacts of climate change, such as droughts, highlighting the importance of adopting technologies such as GMOs.
BACKBONE OF ECONOMY
Rwanda Prime Minister Edouard Ngirente echoed Kanangire’s sentiments, saying agriculture is crucial.
“Agriculture remains the backbone of our economies, employing over 60 per cent of the population and contributing approximately 23 per cent to Africa’s GDP. However, despite the vast potential of our continent’s land and human capital, many African farmers continue to face significant production challenges,” he said.
Some of the challenges farmers are grappling with include climate conditions, outdated agricultural practices, limited access to markets and inadequate financing.
“To address these barriers and secure the future of agriculture in Africa, we must leverage technology and innovation as essential drivers of its transformation,” he said.
Ngirente made his remarks during the second edition of the African Conference on Agricultural Technologies that took place at Kigali International Convention under the theme ‘NextGen Ag-tech solutions for Africa's farmers.’
The conference, which is taking place between June 9 and 13, seeks to advance agricultural technology transfer. It is hosted by the African Agricultural Technology Foundation in partnership with the Government of Rwanda.
It brings together leaders, innovators, policymakers, researchers, farmers and industry experts to explore cutting-edge technologies, share best practices and foster collaboration for sustainable agricultural transformation across Africa.
Africa's population is projected to hit 2.5 billion by 2050.
Statistics from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN shows that about 868 million people were moderately or severely food-insecure in Africa in 2023.
More than one-third of them – 342 million people – were severely food-insecure, the statistics shows.
It is for this reason that experts have called for the transformation of food systems on the continent.
EMPOWERING YOUNG INNOVATORS
Ngirente said there is a need to empower young innovators by providing funding, training and resources to scale their smart farming solutions.
“Africa must de-risk agriculture to safeguard farmers from uncertainties,” he said.
Ngirente said there is also a need to expand access to crop and livestock insurance, affordable financing and climate-resilient seeds to ensure greater stability and long-term security in agriculture.
Likewise, improved livestock care and reliable farming tools are essential for making the sector more productive, he said.
Ngirente said there is also a need to expand digital farming tools such as precision farming, automated irrigation and AI-driven advisory tools. Pest detection systems are essential to making agriculture more efficient and profitable.
“To address these barriers and secure the future of agriculture in Africa, we must leverage technology and innovation as essential drivers of its transformation. Agriculture must be sustainable and attractive, especially for our young generation,” he said.
Ngirente said there is a need to integrate technology and innovation across all efforts to transform the sector.
“Indeed, technology and innovation are essential pillars of modern agriculture and are no longer optional.”
PRACTICAL PARTNERSHIPS
Ngirente urged stakeholders to use the ACAT platform not only to share knowledge but also forge practical partnerships that can scale proven innovations and bring real transformation to smallholder farmers, the true custodians of Africa’s food systems.
“Let us remember that technology is not just about tools and platforms — it is about people. It is about a farmer, young or old, in a rural village using a mobile phone to check crop prices. It is about a young innovator developing a drone to monitor pests and diseases. It is about a continent that believes in its capacity to feed itself and to thrive,” he said.
Former Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Africa continues to face food insecurity despite having vast arable land and a youthful population.
“The continent boasts diverse agroecological zones and a rich heritage of farming and food systems. Africa is actually blessed,” he said.
Jonathan said there is need to adopt available and latest technologies.
He called for digital collaboration through platforms such as the African Union, the African Community of West African States and Comesa to reduce tariffs on agricultural inputs and amalgamate standards for the regulation and management of products.
Jonathan urged countries to put more money into agriculture, up 10 per cent of their budgets as per commitments under the Maputo Declaration.
“Development finance institutions must innovate financing models that work for smallholder farmers and agribusinesses. This will encourage young people to go into agriculture.”
He said the continent has what it takes to improve food production.
"Africa has what it takes: talent, land, ingenuity and political will. What we must now forge is the coherence and courage to act across ministries, regions, and sectors," Jonathan said.
"If we get the enabling environment right, we can mobilise the partnerships and capital required to leapfrog into the future of food and agriculture."
Rwanda’s Agriculture minister Dr Mark Bagabe said he sometimes fails to understand concerns raised over GMOs.
Bagabe said GMOs have been consumed for more than 30 years and he does not wish to fight with business people.
AATF Board of Trustees Prof Aggrey Ambali said the ongoing debates on youth in agriculture in Africa must begin to concretise into actionable models.
“ACAT 2025 provides a high-level platform to reflect on the opportunities to take advantage of the intersection between modern technological advances and the incentives it brings to attract and retain youth in meaningful work in agriculture,” he said.
Ambali said the innovations being showcased in digital agriculture, data integration in agriculture decision-making support systems and other examples where partners are pushing the frontiers in agro-processing will go a long way to confirm the power of seeing is believing.
BT TECHNOLOGY
GMOs are organisms in which the genetic material (DNA) has been altered to obtain desired results such as drought tolerance or pest resistance.
Kanangire said insects and diseases have become common.
He said there are currently two value chains of GMO while others are being developed; and that there is a variety of maize that is drought, insect and disease tolerant.
He said the maize variety has been cultivated in South Africa for more than 10 years.
Kanangire said some of the GMO maize is being cultivated in Nigeria while Ethiopia recently approved three varieties.
He said they expect that Mozambique will also soon release some varieties as they are on environmental release.
Kanangire said Kenya already has some varieties approved but court cases have stalled the process.
He said trials are also being carried out by Rwanda on some varieties.
Kanangire said Bt cowpea is another value chain that is cultivated in West Africa, especially Nigeria, Burkina Faso and Ghana.
He said Nigeria has been producing Bt cowpeas for the last three years.
“The benefit we have is enormous because normally, for example, the cowpeas, the farmers spray between four and eight times, during the four months of the crop development. But when they use Bt cowpeas, they spray only two times,” Kanangire said.
He said this increases productivity as expenses associated with buying of chemicals are reduced.
In Africa, Nigeria grows Bt cowpea and Bt cotton. Kenya, Sudan and Burkina Faso grow Bt cotton.
Several other countries are conducting field trials on rice, maize, wheat, sorghum, bananas, cassava and sweet potato.
Bt is an abbreviation of Bacillus thuringiensis, a soil bacterium that is common around the world.
The bacterium produces specialised proteins called Bt proteins that selectively kill certain types of insects without affecting other living organisms.
As such, Bt have been and are still being used as biological control agents for certain insect pests in farming, especially for the organic food industry.
Modern biotechnology has produced Bt crops that are now modified to produce specific Bt proteins in the plant cells to protect against certain pests, as such crops do not need conventional pesticides to control pests that are controlled by Bt protein.
