AGRA

By Aggie Konde

Nairobi, November 21, 2025: Following COP30 in Belém, Brazil, attention now shifts to Johannesburg for the G20 Summit. COP30 was intense, wide-ranging, and will require deeper reflection in the coming weeks. However, ahead of Johannesburg, it is important to briefly thread together key highlights from the Agricultural Innovation Showcase, which ran throughout COP30 and included a dedicated high-level event on Day One.

Co-hosted by the Gates Foundation, Brazil’s Ministry of Agriculture and Livestock, Embrapa, AGRA, AIM for Scale, CGIAR, the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS), the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), and the United Arab Emirates, the Agricultural Innovation Showcase brought together a broad coalition of partners working at the forefront of global agricultural transformation. The Showcase highlighted practical, scalable solutions for strengthening global food security in a changing climate. For AGRA, it reinforced the value of the partnerships we have cultivated over two decades. Partnerships focused on soil health, farmer resilience, and innovation that meets farmers where they are.

Governments, researchers and development partners put real money and tools on the table. The Gates Foundation committed a whooping US$1.4 billion four-year adaptation package. This, added to what other partners pledged at the high-level event on Day One, bulked the full commitment to about US$2.8 billion.

Specifically, The Gates Foundation’s commitment identified three areas:

Digital advisory services: Mobile apps, SMS, and other platforms that deliver timely, tailored information to help farmers make informed planting decisions and manage risk, including support for the AIM for Scale initiative, which aims to reach 100 million farmers across Africa, Asia, and Latin America by 2030

Climate-resilient crops and livestock: Varieties that withstand drought, heat, and emerging pests while improving yields and nutrition

Soil health innovations: Approaches that restore degraded land, enhance productivity, and reduce emissions, which is supported by a US$30 million partnership with the Novo Nordisk Foundation to advance soil science research

We went into COP30 with among other objectives, realizing concrete partner commitments to finance Soil Values and farmer-led resilience packages. This momentum and energy must be carried to Johannesburg, where South Africa is chairing the first G20 held on African soil, under the theme Solidarity, Equality, Sustainability, with food security and climate resilience high on the list of priorities.

For business and government leaders gathering in South Africa, the goal is to build on Belém’s outcomes, emphasizing the private sector’s role and aligning finance with measurable results while keeping agriculture and food systems firmly on the agenda.

Under South Africa’s presidency, food security has been anchored in new principles that stress rights, affordability and resilience, referred to as the Ubuntu approach to food security and nutrition.  The task for Johannesburg is not to invent a new script. It is to top some of what Belém has done but now specifically for the continent, especially because we are hosting and can provide evidence on home soil.

The G20 under the leadership of Brazil helped launch the Global Alliance Against Hunger and Poverty in Rio, a platform that aims to support at least 100 million small scale farmers while backing national programmes such as school meals and social protection.

A practical takeaway for G20 leaders is to treat these lanes as fast tracks under the Global Alliance and related G20 finance initiatives. That means tying new concessional finance and blended capital to programs that can show hectares covered, farmers reached, and incomes stabilized, rather than to broad project labels. It also means aligning debt relief and sustainable finance discussions with food security outcomes, not just macro indicators.

Four delivery lanes that match G20 food security priorities

The G20 Agriculture Working Group and Food Security Task Force have already stressed that farmers, climate and inclusion must move to the center of global food policy. The four delivery lanes from Belém offer a simple way to execute that vision.

Digital climate services: G20 members can support scale up of trusted digital advisory by investing in rural connectivity, open weather and market data, and interoperable platforms. The payoff is better decisions at farm level, from when to plant to whether to buy insurance.

Seeds and science for resilience; Belém showcased pipelines of drought tolerant, heat tolerant and pest resistant varieties coming out of Brazilian and global research systems. The G20 can back this by strengthening national research, streamlining regional seed regulation and supporting local seed companies to commercialize these traits

Soil health at system scale; Living soils underpin yield stability under climate stress. The G20 agriculture agenda already acknowledges the need for integrated soil, water, and land management. Johannesburg can give that a sharper edge by encouraging coordinated soil health programs that blend fertilizer reform, organic matter management and farmer facing advisory, using the new finance signals from Belém as a catalyst.

Markets and policy linkages; Finally, both the G20 and COP30 processes recognize that innovation only delivers when markets, extension and finance move together. Regional trade, inclusive value chain finance and predictable policy are not side issues. They are the plumbing that takes proven solutions from pilot to scale.

Belém demonstrated the power of centering farmers in climate negotiations. Johannesburg can build on this by treating the COP30 agriculture agenda as a blueprint, signaling global support for smallholders and food systems through open tools, fair finance, and coordinated action.