2025 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR)
AUTHOR
Christian Henning, Menale Kassie, and Racine Ly
SERIES NAME
ReSAKSS Annual Trends and Outlook Report
YEAR
2026
ABSTRACT
Over the past two decades, the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) has catalyzed investments, enhanced accountability mechanisms, and elevated agriculture within the continental development agenda. Yet, emerging challenges—such as stagnating productivity growth, escalating climate risks, and persistent structural barriers—demonstrate that incremental approaches are inadequate. Africa now demands a bold transition toward innovation-driven, data-informed, and institutionally empowered transformation. The Kampala CAADP Declaration embodies this new direction by positioning the agenda as a whole-system transformation, anchoring science, technology, and innovation as core strategic assets for Africa’s future food systems.
Unlocking the continent’s vast potential will necessitate a new wave of investments, institutional reforms, and innovation strategies rooted in robust evidence, systems thinking, and forward-looking digital governance.
The 2025 Annual Trends and Outlook Report (ATOR 2025), “Moving the Technology Frontiers in African Agrifood Systems,”contends that accelerating progress toward ending hunger and eradicating poverty in Africa is a complex ambition requiring a bundle of technical, institutional, and socio-political innovations, embedded in coherent strategies under the Kampala Declaration and the CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026–2035). Africa’s productivity challenge is not primarily technical but deeply institutional and socio-political. Scientific and technological innovations must be embedded within supportive institutions, effective governance, and coherent policies to ensure their widespread adoption and equitable impact.
The report identifies hundreds of digital tools with immediate and long-term potential for transforming agrifood systems. Digital farming, precision agriculture, remote sensing, AI, biotechnology, and organizational innovations can not only reduce transaction costs, strengthen efficiency, and support climate-smart productivity gains, but also enable innovative complementary institutions and governmental processes.
The overarching insight is clear: Africa's technological frontier advances most effectively when accompanied by strong, well-coordinated, and adaptive institutions capable of mobilizing innovation at scale. The report concludes that Africa's agrifood future will be shaped not only by the technologies that exist, but also by how effectively they are governed, financed, adapted, and embedded in inclusive institutions.
ATOR BY CHAPTER
FOREWORD| [Download]
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY| [Download]
Chapter 1| INTRODUCTION
Christian Henning, Menale Kassie, and Racine Ly [Download]
Chapter 2| MOVING THE TECHNOLOGY FRONTIERS IN AFRICAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS: AN
ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORK 4
Christian Henning and John Ulimwengu [Download]
Chapter 3| THE UNTAPPED POTENTIAL OF ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AND GEOSPATIAL
TECHNOLOGY IN AFRICAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS 25
Jean Paul Latyr Faye, Racine Ly, Labaly Toure, Khadim Dia, Moussa Sow, and Mansour Dia [Download]
Chapter 4| OPTIMIZING BIOTECHNOLOGY PARADIGMS AND THEIR APPLICATION FOR AGRIFOOD
SYSTEMS TRANSFORMATION IN AFRICA 40
Emmanuel Okogbenin, Francis Nang’ayo, Daniel Kyalo Willy, Cecilia Limera, Joyce Njuguna,
Onyekachi Francis Nwankwo, Richard Oduor, Jonga Munyaradzi, Vitumbiko Chinoko,
Keziah Chomba, and James Watiti [Download]
Chapter 5| DIGITALIZATION IN AFRICAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS: FROM E-LEARNING TO E-MARKETS
Benjamin Graeub, Kibrom T. Sibhatu, Kelvin Mulungu, Samuel T. Ledermann, and John Choptiany [Download]
Chapter 6| ADVANCING MECHANIZATION IN AFRICAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS: UNLOCKING
PRODUCTIVITY AND RESILIENCE
Oliver K. Kirui, Hiroyuki Takeshima, and Michael Keenan [Download]
Chapter 7| PROCESSING AND VALUE ADDITION TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS
Ramadhani Omari Majubwa, Jamal Kussaga, and Rashid Suleiman [Download]
Chapter 8| INTEGRATING EMERGING IRRIGATION TECHNOLOGIES TO ADVANCE AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTION AND RESILIENCE IN AFRICA
Greenwell C. Matchaya, Adebayo Oke, Manuel S. Magombeyi, and Tinashe Dirwai [Download]
Chapter 9| EMERGING TECHNOLOGIES FOR RESILIENT AND COMPETITIVE LIVESTOCK SYSTEMS 146
Abdrahmane Wane, Laura Cramer, Kelvin Shikuku, and Anthony Whitbread [Download]
Chapter 10| INSECT FARMING INNOVATIONS: A PATHWAY TO SELF-RELIANCE IN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS IN AFRICA
Zewdu Abro, Menale Kassie, Dennis Beesigamukama, Shaphan Yong Chia, Ermias Engida Legesse, Subramanian Sevgan, Julius Ecuru, and Chrysantus M. Tanga [Download]
Chapter 11| AQUAPONIC SYSTEMS FOR SMALL-SCALE FARMING IN AFRICA: POTENTIAL AND CHALLENGES
Bernd Ueberschär, Christian Henning, and Johannes Ziesmer [Download]
Chapter 12| NURTURING AFRICA'S AGRICULTURAL TRANSFORMATION: THE ROLE OF INVESTMENTS IN RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT (R&D)
Gert-Jan Stads, Dorothy Okello, Philip Pardey, Connie Chan-Kang, and Hernán Muñoz [Download]
Chapter 13| POLICY AND REGULATORY FRAMEWORKS FOR DEVELOPMENT OF SEED SYSTEMS IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA
Moti Jaleta, Dawit Alemu, and Walter Chivasa [Download]
Chapter 14| THE ROLE OF DIGITALLY ENABLED SMALLHOLDER PRODUCER ORGANIZATIONS (SPOS IN PROMOTING EMERGING AGRICULTURAL TECHNOLOGIES IN AFRICA
Getaw Tadesse, Fidele Eric Sessou, and Augustin Wambo Yamdjeu [Download]
Chapter 15| TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT AND ADOPTION IN CHINESE AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS: IMPLICATIONS FOR AFRICA
Ting Meng, Yuqi Mei, and Shenggen Fan [Download]
Chapter 16| FROM INNOVATION TO IMPACT: EXPLORING THE ECONOMIC POTENTIAL OF DIGITAL TWINS IN EUROPEAN AND AFRICAN AGRICULTURE
Frits K. van Evert, Khadim Dia, Pepijn A.J. van Oort, Christian Henning, and Johannes Ziesmer [Download]
Chapter 17| MOVING THE TECHNOLOGY FRONTIERS IN AFRICAN AGRIFOOD SYSTEMS: LESSONS FROM LATIN AMERICA
Valeria Piñeiro, Jorge Armando Rueda, Juan Pablo Gianatiempo, and Brian McNamara [Download]
Chapter 18| TRACKING KEY CAADP INDICATORS AND IMPLEMENTATION PROCESSES
Wondwosen Tefera, Tsitsi Makombe, Paul Maina Guthiga, and Julia Collins [Download]
Chapter 19| CONCLUSION
Christian Henning, Menale Kassie, and Racine Ly [Download]
Featured Issue | SPURRING INNOVATION AND SCIENCE POLICY IN AFRICA
Tom Kariuki, Kabura Ciugu, Doris Wangari, Erick Omollo, Judy Omumbo, Uzma Alam, Kevin Kasoli, and Fatu Badiane [Download]
PUBLISHER
AKADEMIYA2063
