African agriculture does not suffer from a shortage of promising projects. The harder challenge is turning them into businesses that can survive after grants, pilots and development funding end.
That was the central message emerging from a leadership breakfast convened by PepsiCo and RTI International at the Africa Food Systems Forum in Kigali, where representatives from business, government, development finance, philanthropy and agriculture examined how public-private partnerships can move beyond short-term interventions and build commercially durable food value chains.
The discussion centred on a simple principle: agricultural investment should begin with a credible market opportunity. That means establishing demand and offtake before capital is deployed, aligning incentives across the value chain and ensuring that farmers can participate profitably. Public and philanthropic capital can then be used where it is most valuable: reducing early risk, strengthening infrastructure, building capability and helping promising models reach the point where commercial finance can take over.