GFN Programs
Launched in response to a request from GFN’s Africa-based farmers for an action-driven regional program with long-term reporting and impact delivery, the Pathway connected leading farmers from across Africa who had not previously met — encouraging them to network and identify potential technology-driven partnerships.
Farmer led, farmer driven
In August 2024, the Global Farmer Network launched the pilot Africa Agriculture Accelerator Pathway at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) in Nairobi, Kenya — bringing together 15 farmers from East, West, and Southern Africa for three days of shared learning about each other’s agri-businesses and the CGIAR research underway across the region.
Alongside the farmers, representatives from the US Embassy (USDA-FAS), WWF, AGCO, OCP, CropLife Africa, and Bayer joined the conversation, exploring what real partnership between government, research, and the private sector could look like in practice.
Out of those discussions, the farmer participants set a shared goal: growing their networks’ profitability through sustainable ag-tech adoption — by building belief in that potential, driving real adoption on the ground, and advocating to the decision-makers who can support it.
Pathway
The meeting in Nairobi, in the words of the farmers and regional leads who were in the room.
Pathway
By Ruramiso Mashumba
The Global Farmer Network launched its pilot Pathway in 2024, convening 15 farmers from across the continent to learn about each other's agri-businesses and discuss partnerships between government, research, and the private sector.
Pathway
By Dave Okech
By sharing data and personal experiences, the GFN Africa Agripreneur Accelerator program is fostering a culture of innovation and growth.
Pathway
By Rotimi Williams
Launched in August 2024 in Nairobi, Kenya, the Agripreneur Accelerator is driving agricultural innovation across Africa by fostering a culture of shared data and knowledge.
Farmer-led commitments
Each participant left the Pathway with a personal next step — for their own operation, or in partnership with someone else in the room.
Jean Kaahwa
Adopt greenhouse gas measurement technology.
Dave Okech
Organize the first fish farmers conference in Kisumu.
Maness Nkhata
Grow her network and collaborate with Jean Kaahwa on cassava flour value addition.
Moses Tia
Contact fish-feed farm trials to test his bio-based fish food.
Lucy Kaari
Connect with Moses Tia on beef cattle production.
Stella Thomas
Connect with Emma Naluyima and Amadou on hydroponic seed production; travel to France to visit Olawale Rotimi.
Jorge Menendez
Connect with Lucy Wangari on onions; bring AAPRESID to Africa as its own network.
Emma Naluyima
Connect with Amadou; learn about alternative protein.
Olawale Rotimi
Connect with Maness; share his network with the rest of the team; connect with the French embassy.
Felix Kili
CGA board member; will host field days and connect with Jorge Menendez.
Willy Kirwa
Train young farmers; partner with Dave Okech.
Lucy Wangari
Work with Jorge Menendez; use Dave Okech as a fundraising resource; improve IT within her business.
Women in Africa Ag
Across sub-Saharan Africa, women contribute between 60 and 80 percent of the labor involved in food production. They are the backbone of rural agriculture and the guardians of household food security.
Women in Ag
By Onyaole Patience Koku
Part of a special series honoring the UN's International Year of the Woman Farmer 2026 — celebrating the women who grow, harvest, and feed the continent.
Africa
By Lucy Wangari
By sharing data and personal experiences, the GFN Africa Agripreneur Accelerator program is fostering a culture of innovation and growth.
Women in Ag
By Lucy Kaari
A profile of a smallholder farmer from Meru, Kenya who cultivates maize, beans, and sorghum while advocating for greater recognition of women's contributions to food security across Africa.
Maize
Maize is Africa's most important food crop and a cornerstone of the continent's agricultural economy.
Maize
By David Kosgei
Supporting smallholder farmers today is one of the most important steps Kenya can take toward a more secure food future.
Maize
By Pacifique Nshimiyimana
Rwanda is advancing maize productivity through hybrid seed adoption and biotechnology approval, including TELA Maize varieties bred for fall armyworm resistance and drought tolerance.
Maize
By Motlatsi Everest Musi
A commercial farmer with over 50 years in the industry on cultivar choices, GMO adoption, and responding to the fall armyworm.
Morocco
By Amine Bennani
How a Moroccan blueberry grower navigates a changing climate — and the demanding expectations of European buyers.
Maize
By Ruramiso Mashumba
Boots-on-the-ground perspectives on maize production from farmers and leaders in Nigeria, South Africa, Kenya, Rwanda, and Morocco.
Podcasts & Radio
GFN farmers on air, taking practical farming knowledge to listeners who hear it on the radio before they read it anywhere.
Radio
By Onyaole Patience Koku
GFN launches a new radio initiative through the Farmwise program on Zuma Radio and HIMMA Radio TV 91.1, delivering daily agricultural knowledge and extension services to Nigerian farmers.
Counterfeits
When people think of counterfeiting, they rarely think of agriculture.
Counterfeits
By Onyaole Patience Koku
A Nigerian farmer on how fraudulent fertilizers, seeds, and crop protection products undermine productivity — and why smallholders bear the brunt of it.
Regen Ag / No-till / AI
Farmer-to-farmer and farmer-to-scientist knowledge sharing, and the partnerships that came out of the Accelerator.
Regen Ag
By Amadou Sidibe
A Malian farmer and GFN member on the partnerships he forged at the Africa Agripreneur Accelerator meeting in Kenya — bringing climate-smart irrigation, drought-resistant seeds, and market access to smallholder farmers across Mali.
AI
By Kaahwa Rwamukaga
How the Accelerator connected Kaahwa Jean Rwamukaga, a Ugandan farm-equipment entrepreneur, with Moses Ngamwani Tia, a Ghanaian AI researcher focused on livestock emissions measurement.
Program milestones
Pathway launched
Launched in response to a request from GFN's Africa-based farmers for an action-driven regional program with long-term reporting and impact delivery.
Attendees work on their goals
Case study at the Africa Food Systems Forum
The GFN showcased this farmer-led process and its results as a case study at the Africa Food Systems Forum in fall 2025.
Attendees continue their goals; podcast launched
For updates on the work led by GFN Regional Leads for Africa — Patience Koku, Nigeria, and Ruramiso Mashumba, Zimbabwe — contact Mary Boote.
