Africa Food Systems Forum opens in Kigali, Rwanda today, with delegates, including heads of state, key policymakers, investors and scientists, expected to explore solutions to some of the continent’s major food security problems.
This year’s edition of the annual forum comes amid concerns that the protracted Middle East conflict is exposing the continent’s vulnerability to food and farm input imports, adding to the devastating impact of the climate change.
Ahead of the Kigali meeting, the Business Daily spoke with Dr Wanjiru Kamau-Rutenberg, the managing director for Africa at The Alliance of Bioversity International and the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), on, among others, what the African governments need to do about the continent’s food systems urgently, why the rest of the world should care about food security in Africa and what they can learn from Africa.
The organisation works with governments, national research organisations, academia, regional bodies, the private sector and farming communities to translate research into real-world solutions.
This must be a special year for you, having been named a 2026 Top Agri-food Pioneer by the World Food Prize Foundation and nominated for the FAO 100 Women Heroines of 2026. What does this recognition mean to you?
