NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 30 — Former African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina has challenged African governments to demonstrate stronger political will to end hunger, arguing that the continent’s biggest obstacle is no longer a lack of technology but a failure to scale proven agricultural innovations.
Speaking during the World Food Prize Foundation’s DialogueNEXT in Africa conference in Nairobi, Adesina said Africa already possesses the scientific breakthroughs, improved crop varieties and institutional knowledge required to transform agriculture, but leaders must now be held politically accountable for delivering food security.
“The challenge in Africa is not technology anymore. It’s not innovation anymore. It’s not even policies anymore because we know what to do,” Adesina said on the sidelines of the high-level summit aimed at accelerating agricultural innovation and strengthening food systems as the continent faces mounting climate pressures and rapid population growth.
“It’s political.”
The 2017 World Food Prize Laureate said nearly 320 million Africans continue to suffer from hunger and acute malnutrition despite decades of advances in agricultural science.
“It is not acceptable. The abnormal must never be normalised,” he said.
“There must therefore be political accountability for the poverty and the hunger that we see. Governments have the duty and responsibility to ensure this should not be the case.”
Adesina pointed to Ethiopia’s transformation into a wheat self-sufficient nation within four years as evidence that decisive political leadership, backed by science, can rapidly boost food production.
“If that can be done in Ethiopia, why can’t that be done in several other countries?” he asked.
He argued that governments should place agriculture at the centre of national development agendas and increase public pressure on political leaders to prioritise food security.
“We must put social pressure on the political class to end the hunger that we see. There is nothing magical about ending hunger. But if we become comfortable with the abnormal situation, it becomes normal.”
Adesina also challenged scientists and research institutions to take responsibility for ensuring innovations reach farmers rather than remaining confined to laboratories and academic journals.
“Those that give birth to the child must carry the child on their back,” he said, referring to agricultural technologies.
“You can’t develop technologies and abandon them. We don’t eat research papers; people eat food.”
Drawing on the Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) programme launched during his tenure at the African Development Bank, Adesina said researchers should be judged not by the number of scientific publications they produce but by how many millions of farmers adopt their innovations.
He further urged African governments to reform regulatory systems that delay the approval of improved crop varieties across countries sharing similar agroecological conditions.
“If a technology has already been proven in one agroecological zone, why should another country spend another four years testing it?” he asked.
“Do diseases and pests require visas?”
Adesina also defended biotechnology, warning that excessive scepticism and restrictive regulations risk denying African farmers access to innovations that improve productivity, nutrition and climate resilience.
“We need biosafety regulations, but we should not become scientific laggards,” he said.
“We must embrace biotechnology and create regulations that allow science to move to the frontier.”
While supporting Adesina’s call for stronger political leadership, Professor Ruth Oniang’o, founder of the African Journal of Food, Agriculture, Nutrition and Development, said the real challenge is ensuring innovations actually reach the farmers they are designed to help.
Oniang’o said forums such as DialogueNEXT are valuable because they bring together scientists, policymakers, farmers, young people and the media to bridge the gap between research and implementation.
“The technology goes ahead, and it’s available, but then you go to the ground, and you don’t find it,” she said.
She attributed the disconnect to inadequate resources and poor communication, urging the media to make agricultural science more accessible to ordinary farmers.
“I always call out to the media to demystify the science and bring it down to the farmer. Otherwise, if the farmer is not empowered and not resourced enough to take up the technology, then they cannot really feed the rest of us.”
Oniang’o said many rural farmers remain excluded from conversations about emerging technologies, including biotechnology and artificial intelligence, despite being expected to adopt innovations that could improve productivity.
“People are talking about AI, but if you go to my woman on the ground, she doesn’t know what you’re talking about,” she said.
She also called for greater incentives to attract young people into agriculture and urged policymakers to ensure new technologies are visible and accessible at village level.
“It’s important to ask those developing these technologies: where in the village can I go and see them?” she said.
Oniang’o argued that Kenya, which hosts many of Africa’s leading agricultural research institutions, should be at the forefront of driving the continent’s food production.
“If anyone should be feeding the rest of Africa, it is Kenya. We have all these institutions here. We are well educated, and we have very sensible, well-educated media. We need to just act.”
She further stressed that food security is not only about producing more food but also ensuring diets are nutritious, safe and diverse.
“You can have a society feeding on potatoes and still be malnourished,” she said. “Food must be safe, nutritious, diverse, culturally acceptable and what people like to eat.”
Echoing that message, Adesina said food security should be measured not only by the quantity of food available but also by its nutritional value.
“Quantity matters, quality matters and nutritious food is especially important for children,” he said, highlighting the importance of biofortified crops, school feeding programmes and access to clean water in combating malnutrition.
World Food Prize Foundation President Mashal Husain said DialogueNEXT was created to move beyond discussion by bringing together scientists, policymakers, agribusiness leaders, innovators, students and farmers to build practical partnerships.
“We know that when people come together, ideas grow,” Husain said.
“This is a moment to celebrate Africa’s successes, but also to examine the gaps and identify opportunities for improvement.”
She said the Foundation deliberately chose Africa as the latest destination for DialogueNEXT after previous editions in Mexico and India because the continent represented the final chapter of Dr. Norman Borlaug’s global mission against hunger.
“It has taken us 40 years to have our first convening in Africa,” Husain said.
“I’m both saddened that it took this long and proud that we’re finally here. This conversation is meant to be very farmer-centric. We want farmers on the stage because Dr. Borlaug’s final message was simple: take it to the farmer.”
Husain said the Foundation intends to return to Africa regularly to track progress, celebrate milestones and sustain conversations that translate into action.
For Adesina, however, the success of the conference will ultimately be judged not by the quality of its discussions but by the political action that follows.
“This is not a conversation of words,” he said.
“It is a conversation of commitment and determination. The time has come not just for Africa to feed itself—that is the lowest bar. The time has come for Africa to feed the world.”
The forum brought together stakeholders from across Africa and around the world to explore how technology, policy reforms and investment can transform agriculture and position the continent to feed a population projected to account for more than one in every four people globally by 2050.