ADDIS ABABA: Africa does not lack agricultural ambitions, strategies or declarations. What it lacks is the ability to turn them into measurable transformation. That was the central message Prof Andrew E. Temu, Chairperson of the Board of Directors of the Africa Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ANAPRI), delivered to the network’s 13th Annual Stakeholders Conference, held at the Hyatt Regency in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 26 to 29 October 2026.
Hosted in partnership with Ethiopia’s Policy Studies Institute (PSI), the conference ran under the theme “Building Competitive Agrifood Economies: Policy, Trade, and Industrialization Pathways for Africa.” It brought together researchers, policymakers, development partners and private-sector actors from across the continent.
“Africa’s agricultural challenge is no longer simply about producing more,” Prof Temu told delegates in his address to the conference. “It is about producing competitively, adding value, building industries, expanding markets, creating decent jobs and retaining a greater share of the wealth generated by our agricultural resources.”
The problem behind the theme
The numbers framing the Addis Ababa meeting explain why competitiveness, rather than production alone, has moved to the top of the agenda. ANAPRI’s conference concept note cites hunger now exceeding 20 per cent of Africa’s population, about 307 million people according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and partners (2025), and an agricultural trade deficit estimated by the African Development Bank at US$38.7 billion (2023).
The concept note identifies the structural causes as persistent low productivity, limited value addition and weak market integration, compounded by climate shocks, conflict, tight public budgets and shifting global trade. At the same time, digital trade, data systems and traceability are changing how agrifood markets work, creating opportunities for countries that are ready and new risks for those that are not.
To respond, the conference was organised around three pillars: the policy and institutional environment for investment and innovation; regional trade, value chains and agrifood industrialisation; and financing agricultural transformation under fiscal, climate and geopolitical uncertainty. Discussions ran across five sub-themes: agrifood competitiveness and transformation; trade integration and regional markets; resilient and sustainable production systems; innovation, digitalisation and artificial intelligence (AI); and institutions, partnerships and policy delivery.
Speaking to the Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) on 24 October 2026, two days before the opening, ANAPRI Executive Director Dr Antony Chapoto framed the same challenge. “Africa’s agricultural transformation must go beyond increasing production,” he said, arguing that the continent must build competitive agrifood industries and retain more of the value of what it grows. Africa already has strong strategies and commitments, he noted; the hard part is converting them into consistent policies and tangible results, a gap he said only strong African institutions and locally generated evidence can close.
Day zero: subsidies and artificial intelligence
Two pre-conference events on 26 October set the tone. The first, a forum titled “From Agricultural Subsidies to Catalytic Investments,” was convened by ANAPRI with the World Bank, FAO, the African Union Development Agency (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Africa Fertilizer Industry Development Association (AFIDA). It examined how African governments can better align public spending, agricultural price incentives, private investment and evidence to reform agricultural support systems, in support of the new Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) framework and the African Fertilizer and Soil Health Action Plan. The forum structured its work around five questions: why support systems should change, what countries should invest in and reform, who should lead, finance and deliver, where the greatest opportunities lie, and when and how change should happen. Selected contributors were invited to help build an Addis Action Framework.
The second, a workshop on “The Political Economy of AI in African Agrifood Systems,” was organised by ANAPRI with the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), with support from the CGIAR Science Programme on Policy Innovations and the Digital Transformation Accelerator. It looked at how AI is being governed, contested and applied in African food systems, and where policy gaps remain for smallholder farmers and rural communities. A dedicated session on the same subject followed in the main conference.
Prof Temu singled out both discussions as the most thought-provoking of the week. “Both remind us that sustainable transformation requires more than resources and technology,” he said. “It requires sound policies, capable institutions, appropriate incentives and effective implementation.”
The CAADP test
The conference was the first ANAPRI gathering since the new CAADP Strategy and Action Plan (2026–2035) of the African Union (AU) came into force on 1 January 2026. Adopted by AU Heads of State at an extraordinary summit in Kampala, Uganda, on 9–11 January 2025, the Kampala CAADP Declaration replaces the Malabo agenda with a broader agrifood systems approach. Its headline targets for 2035 include increasing agrifood output by 45 per cent, mobilising US$100 billion in investment, tripling intra-African trade in agrifood products and inputs, and halving post-harvest losses.
It was against this backdrop that Prof Temu drew his sharpest conclusion. Earlier continental commitments, from Maputo to Malabo, set ambitious targets that most countries missed. For the ANAPRI Chair, the risk now is a repeat. “The greater challenge,” he said, “is turning these commitments into measurable transformation.”
That, he argued, is where policy research institutes earn their place. “Our collective responsibility is to bridge the distance between evidence and policy, policy and investment, and investment and impact.”
A network building its own capacity
The Addis Ababa conference capped a significant year for ANAPRI. The network began on 12 November 2012 in Lusaka, Zambia, as the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNAPRI), with seven founding members. A decade later it adopted its continental name, and it now links 17 agricultural policy research institutions in 16 African countries, including Kenya’s Tegemeo Institute and Zambia’s Indaba Agricultural Policy Research Institute. Its Executive Director is Dr Antony Chapoto.
Prof Temu was confirmed as Board Chairperson at ANAPRI’s 23rd Board meeting, held at Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe, on 22–24 January 2026, alongside a reconstituted board that includes Dr Vera Songwe, Dr Lilian Kirimi, Dr David Nielson, Dr Salomo Mbai, Prof Peter Quartey and Dr Ndèye Fatou Faye. On 7 October 2026, he officially opened the ANAPRI Secretariat office in Lusaka.
The host institution brings its own weight. PSI is Ethiopia’s public policy think tank, established by the government in November 2018 through the merger of the Ethiopian Development Research Institute (founded 1999) and the Policy Study and Research Centre (founded 2014). PSI and ANAPRI began coordinating on the conference at a virtual planning meeting on 1 April 2026.
Ethiopia also came to the table with a story of its own. Desalegn Begna, Director of PSI’s ANAPRI Centre, told ENA ahead of the conference that the country has made significant agricultural progress in recent years and would showcase its wheat production and other achievements as lessons for the rest of the continent.
The conference was also the platform for introducing ANAPRI’s Strategic Plan 2027–2031, which aims to strengthen policy research and institutional capacity and turn research into practical policy solutions. Looking ahead to that plan, Prof Temu set out a clear ambition: for ANAPRI to become “Africa’s go-to institution for credible, independent and actionable agrifood policy research and advice”, judged “not merely by the research it produces, but by the policies it informs, the institutions it strengthens, and the transformation it helps unlock.”
Why it matters for Tanzania
For Tanzanian readers, the Addis Ababa message has a familiar ring. Prof Temu is no stranger to the country’s own policy debates: as Technical Advisor to the ENGINE programme, he moderated Tanzania’s Annual Agricultural Policy Conference in February 2018, opened by Prime Minister Kassim Majaliwa; and in May 2021 he addressed the launch of the World Bank-supported Tanzania Citizen Engagement Platform on the barriers to agricultural productivity and rural livelihoods.
The themes he raised in Addis Ababa sit at the centre of Tanzania’s own push to commercialise smallholder agriculture and expand agricultural exports. They include moving from input subsidies to investments that crowd in private capital, building agro-processing industries, and using the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) to reach regional markets. The question ANAPRI put to the continent applies equally at home: are national plans being turned into change that farmers and agribusinesses can see?
What comes next
ANAPRI’s concept note committed the conference to four outputs: a conference communiqué and synthesis report; a priority research and policy agenda to guide the network’s flagship studies; new and strengthened partnerships for joint programmes and capacity building; and an implementation and learning framework to track whether recommendations are acted upon. As of 7 November 2026, the communiqué had not yet been published on ANAPRI’s website. Kilimokwanza.org will report on it when it is released.
Prof Temu closed his address with a warning against conference fatigue. “The conversations in Addis Ababa must continue beyond the conference halls,” he said. “Africa’s agrifood transformation will ultimately be judged by what changes on the ground.”
From evidence to action. From agricultural potential to competitive agrifood economies.
Sources
- ANAPRI: 13th Stakeholders Conference page and Concept Note: https://www.anapri.net/2026stakeholdersconference/
- ANAPRI: Call for Evidence: From Agricultural Subsidies to Catalytic Investments: https://www.anapri.net/call-for-evidence-policy-and-investment-insights/
- ANAPRI: Call for Abstracts: The Political Economy of AI in African Agrifood Systems: https://www.anapri.net/call-for-abstracts-the-political-economy-of-ai-in-african-agrifood-systems/
- Andrew E. Temu, LinkedIn post (source material) and ANAPRI repost on the Lusaka Secretariat opening: https://www.linkedin.com/in/andrew-e-temu-61289128/
- Tegemeo Institute: ANAPRI Board appointments, 23rd Board meeting: https://tegemeo.egerton.ac.ke/component/tags/tag/gender
- PSI: PSI and ANAPRI discuss plans to host international conference: https://psi.org.et/index.php/blog/650-psi-and-anapri-discussed-plans-to-host-an-international-conference
- PSI profile (DevelopmentAid): https://www.developmentaid.org/organizations/view/235315/policy-studies-institute
- MSU / PRCI: ANAPRI historical timeline: https://www.canr.msu.edu/prci/assets/DayOne-Kapuya-ANAPRI.pdf
- MSU: Ten years of ReNAPRI brings new name: https://www.canr.msu.edu/news/ten-years-of-renapri-brings-new-initiatives-and-new-name-at-annual-conference
- African Union: CAADP Strategy and Action Plan adoption, Kampala: https://au.int/en/pressreleases/20250113/african-union-adopts-ten-year-strategy-and-action-plan-transform-africas-agri
- ILRI: CAADP Kampala Declaration targets: https://www.ilri.org/news/au-endorses-10-year-plan-build-resilient-agrifood-systems-africa
- AKADEMIYA2063: Kampala Declaration in force 1 January 2026: https://www.akademiya2063.org/publications/kampala_policy_brief/The%20Kampala%20CAADP%20Declaration%20At%20A%20Glance_AKADEMIYA2063%20Power%20Brief.pdf
- MSU: 2018 Agricultural Policy Conference programme (ENGINE): https://www.canr.msu.edu/fsp/news/Abstract_Concept_Note__Program_-_OP.pdf
- World Bank: Dr Temu, TCEP discussion notes, 28 May 2021: https://thedocs.worldbank.org/en/doc/c43ab090adf249d60843a8b9308b7c1c-0010012021/related/Final-Dr-Temu-TCEP-Discussion-Notes.pdf
- Ethiopian News Agency: Ethiopia to Host Africa Agricultural Policy Research Institutes Conference (24 October 2026): https://www.ena.et/web/eng/w/eng_9807010
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