Transforming Africa's Food Systems
International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)
Investing in rural people
Under the umbrella of IFAD14, IFAD has set three interconnected priorities: unlocking the potential of rural economies through deeper market integration, expanding rural employment and building resilient rural communities.
Delivering on these objectives requires catalyzing partnerships that can mobilize and scale capital into rural economies, particularly where conventional financing does not adequately serve rural enterprises and small-scale producers.
Against this backdrop, the 2026 Africa Food Systems Forum (AFS Forum), co-hosted by the Government of Rwanda, provided an important platform for the IFAD delegation led by Vice-President Gérardine Mukeshimana, PhD to reinforce these priorities while translating new partnerships into concrete investment opportunities.
Scaling rural finance requires looking beyond individual financing instruments and towards the broader systems that enable rural businesses to grow and adapt.
A significant gap remains between microfinance and conventional commercial lending, particularly for early-stage and growing agribusinesses. In underserved markets, effective financing requires long-term investment capital alongside technical assistance to address higher transaction costs, limited collateral, fragmented markets, climate and market risks.
At the same time, climate adaptation finance needs to become part of mainstream rural banking. Given the scale of climate-related challenges, financing mechanisms need to be scalable, replicable, and embedded within rural financial systems, rather than dependent on individual projects.
During the Forum, several partnerships advanced these priorities.
IFAD signed a $10 million loan agreement with AgDevCo Ventures to provide patient capital to early-stage agribusinesses in East Africa. The partnership addresses the financing gap between microfinance and conventional commercial lending and is expected to support up to 15 Agri-SMEs, reach almost 128,000 smallholder farmers and contribute to the creation of approximately 2,900 jobs over the next 12 years.
IFAD and Equity Bank Limited officially launched the Africa Rural Climate Adaptation Finance Mechanism (ARCAFIM), convened with the Green Climate Fund, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland and the Nordic Development Fund (NDF), and also co-financed by the Government of Denmark ( Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Denmark ) and the European Union.
This US$200 million, 12-year blended finance mechanism aims to make climate adaptation finance more accessible and scalable within rural financial systems.
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IFAD, Bank of Kigali Plc and Aceli Africa also signed a US$9 million financing agreement, alongside a US$1.8 million grant agreement, to launch the Farmers’ Organizations Financing Programme Rwanda.
The programme is expected to mobilize a further US$21 million, strengthen approximately 215 farmers’ organizations and facilitate access to finance for 172 of them.
At the forum, IFAD and The World Bank Group co-hosted the AgriConnect: The Road to 300 Million event.
Launched in October 2025, AgriConnect aims to connect 300 million family and smallholder farmers globally to markets, finance and agricultural services by 2030.
One year on, Africa is already playing a leading role. Half of the first 10 AgriConnect country compacts were launched in Africa, and IFAD and the World Bank Group have together reached over 10 million farmers through targeted investments.
Together, these partnerships demonstrate how development finance can address market gaps, mobilize additional capital and create the conditions for sustainable investment in rural economies.
This is the ambition of IFAD14: to leverage partnerships and innovative financial instruments to unlock rural potential, create opportunities for young people and strengthen resilience, while ensuring that financing translates into tangible and lasting results.
Read more about IFAD14 at ifad14.ifad.org
#FinancingTheFirstMile
A very important point. Building more resilient and profitable food systems also requires looking beyond today’s dominant crops and identifying locally adapted opportunities for diversification. At AgriEnv AI, we are developing a Forgotten Crops Location Suitability Tool designed to evaluate where underutilized crops may have production potential based on climate and agro-meteorological conditions such as rainfall, temperature, dry spells, radiation and water availability. The goal is to help identify promising crop–location combinations under rainfed, supplemental-irrigation and fully irrigated scenarios, particularly in regions where diversification could strengthen climate resilience, food security and rural livelihoods. This type of decision-support could complement investment and development programs aimed at building more resilient agricultural systems. #ForgottenCrops #CropSuitability #ClimateResilience #FoodSecurity #DigitalAgriculture #AIinAgriculture #RuralDevelopment #AgriEnvAI
We would also like the support,We are Bambanani Nkoneni Association a registered nonprofit organization from Eswatini
Happy to see real progress post Covid 19, as we shift development finance institutions (DFIs) from balance-sheet lenders to market catalyst entities. This is standard in urban infrastructure, but rarely operationalized effectively in rural agrifood systems. If IFAD14 successfully uses first-loss guarantees, catalytic equity, and subordinated debt to pull institutional asset managers and local commercial banks down-market, it solves a real liquidity trap for rural SME agribusiness and broaden the base creating a path way for measurable wealth creation.
In Uganda WestNile Imvepi Refugee Settlement, the IFAD Loan agreement would so much support scale up and promote the commercial production of maize and rice including value addition!