Inside a Busy Week in the Africa Food Systems Forum’s Kigali Deal Room

The most revealing activity at the Africa Food Systems Forum 2026 took place away from the plenary speeches, inside Kigali’s Deal Room. For five days, agricultural ambitions met the more difficult questions of finance, technology, policy and delivery.

The African Union is seeking to mobilize $100 billion in public and private investment for food systems by 2035 through the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme 2026-2035. The framework aims to lift agrifood output by 45% and triple trade in agricultural and food products between African countries.

But the mood in Kigali was not simply celebratory. The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa’s report on two decades of impact, learning and foresight said productivity had improved, while gains in farmer incomes remained incomplete. Markets and finance had not expanded quickly enough. The gap between what Africa knows and what it can deliver became one of the forum’s central concerns.

The Deal Room offered practical proposals. Liberia presented a $907.75 million investment program designed to reduce its dependence on imported rice. Tanzania presented opportunities built around a maize surplus, a shortage of edible oil and growing avocado exports.

Financing announcements added weight to the discussions. The International Fund for Agricultural Development launched a $200 million blended-finance facility for climate adaptation in Rwanda, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda. A separate $21 million partnership with Bank of Kigali is expected to expand financing for farmer organizations in Rwanda.

Rwanda also announced plans to use artificial intelligence to reach more than 2.5 million farmers within three years through stronger agricultural extension services. The approach is being tested with tools such as Tunga, a Kinyarwanda voice assistant that answers farmers’ questions using a validated knowledge base. The forum’s focus, therefore, extended beyond investment in farming to the systems that connect farmers with knowledge, finance, markets and technology.