LocationsAfrica × Japan Agri-Innovation Co-Creation Dialogue: Reframing Agriculture as a Shared Growth Sector
Event Report: AFRI-CONVERSE 2026 #1
April 21, 2026
The first session of AFRI-CONVERSE 2026, titled “Africa × Japan Agri-Innovation Co-Creation Dialogue: Reframing Agriculture as a Shared Growth Sector,” was held in March 2026 in a hybrid format, combining in-person and online participation. The event was co-organized by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as part of the follow-up to the Ninth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD 9).
The session aimed to reframe Africa’s agricultural sector, not only as the foundation for food security and job creation, but also as a promising field for growth driven by youth engagement, technology adoption, and private sector investment. Discussions drew on concrete examples and practical experiences, focusing on youth participation, a shift toward market-oriented agriculture, technological innovation, and business collaboration between Japan and Africa.
A total of 208 online participants and 46 in-person participants attended the event, representing students, researchers, entrepreneurs, private companies, and policymakers. The discussions highlighted the importance of transitioning from “producing” to “selling” through a market-oriented approach, the potential of youth and technology to shape the future of agriculture, and the opportunities for sustainable cooperation grounded in mutual learning between Japan and Africa.
SPEAKERS
Opening Remarks
・Mr. Shuhei Ueno, Deputy Director General, Planning and TICAD Process, Africa Department, JICA
Congratulatory Remarks
・Mr. KAWATO Shigeyuki, Deputy Director, First Africa Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA)
1st Session
・Ms. Miki Yamamoto, Gambia Exchange Visit Participant / Japanese TICAD Youth Action Plan Participant
2nd Session
・Mr. Jiro Aikawa, Senior Advisor for Agriculture and Rural Development, JICA
・Mr. Susumu Tsubaki, Director, OS Trading & Investments Pte. Ltd. (OSTI)/ Founder & Representative Director, AAIC Holdings Pte.Ltd.
・Ms. Adesanya Oluwatoyin Fatimoh, Chief Research Officer, National Cereals Research Institute Badeggi Nigeria
・Ms. Kumba Daffeh Kah, President, Tresor Women Warriors
Moderator:
・Chika Kondoh, TICAD Partnership Specialist, UNDP
OPENING REMARKS
In his opening remarks, Mr. Shuhei Ueno, Deputy Director General, Planning and TICAD Process, Africa Department at JICA highlighted three reasons for selecting agriculture as the theme of the session.
First, agriculture remains a critical sector in Africa, underpinning both food security and job creation. Second, advances in IT and digital technologies, alongside the expansion of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), are bringing significant changes to the agricultural market environment and business opportunities. Third, with rising private-sector participation, agriculture is increasingly shifting from a “sector of assistance” to a “sector of investment.”
Mr. Ueno expressed strong expectations for the session, noting that “agriculture is precisely the sector that generates employment.”
Following this, Mr. Kawato Shigeyuki, Deputy Director, First Africa Division at MOFA emphasized Africa’s demographic dynamics—home to approximately 1.4 billion people today and projected to reach 2.5 billion by 2050. Citing a report by the International Labour Organization (ILO), he noted that nearly half of Africa’s workforce is engaged in agriculture, linking agricultural stability directly to youth employment, social stability, and economic development.
He also highlighted the commitments outlined in the TICAD 9 Yokohama Declaration, including Japan’s goals to support annual food production for 250 million people, train 50,000 rice specialists per year, and increase the incomes of 120,000 smallholder households. At the same time, he pointed to persistent challenges such as rain-fed agriculture, limited technical capacity, barriers to finance and markets, and inadequate transport infrastructure.
Drawing attention to Japan’s aging population and Africa’s expanding youth population, he stated that the question of “how young people can thrive in agriculture” is a shared challenge for both regions, and expressed hope that today’s dialogue would generate insights applicable to agriculture in Japan as well.
From Policy Proposal to Field Innovation: Youth Voices from The Gambia and Japan
In session 1, Ms. Miki Yamamoto, who participated in a UNDP exchange program to The Gambia, shared her firsthand experiences. With a background in GIS and satellite remote sensing, she initially expected to address local challenges through advanced technologies. However, what struck her most during the visit was the importance of “appropriate technology.”
Although there was potential to introduce new technologies on the ground, she observed that adopting cutting-edge digital tools was not always the optimal solution. Instead, many communities adopted locally developed, circular agricultural systems tailored to local needs and resources, which proved both realistic and sustainable. She reflected, “The process of questioning what technology is truly needed on the ground was meaningful in itself.”
She also spoke about the powerful inspiration she drew from young Gambian agri-entrepreneurs who excelled in a pitch contest by proactively pursuing agriculture as a business.
On the potential for collaboration between African and Japanese youth, she emphasized the importance of continuous communication, suggesting that creating an ongoing platform for information exchange, beyond one-off study tours, would unlock significant opportunities.
PANEL DISCUSSION
Mr. Jiro Aikawa, Senior Advisor for Agriculture and Rural Development at JICA underscored that while the global population continues to rise, the number of farmers is decreasing, making agriculture an “industry that must grow.” Without improved productivity, stagnation in agriculture would threaten global food supply.
He introduced JICA’s SHEP (Smallholder Horticulture Empowerment & Promotion) approach, explaining that its core objective is to shift farmers’ mindsets and behaviors, from “growing and then searching for buyers” to “researching what sells and then growing it.” A randomized controlled trial involving approximately 5,000 farmers in Kenya showed that farmers adopting SHEP increased their incomes by about 70% compared to those who did not.
The approach has now been introduced in over 60 countries, including 30 in Africa. Mr. Aikawa shared an example from Senegal, where agricultural income increased tenfold, even leading some farmers to reconsider migration to France. He also highlighted the relevance of market-oriented thinking for Japan, noting that clear differences in outcomes are observed between farmers who prioritize consumer needs and those who focus solely on production.
Ms. Adesanya Oluwatoyin Fatimoh, Chief Research Officer of National Cereals Research Institute and a current doctoral student at Tokyo University of Agriculture, emphasized that the key to positioning agriculture as a growth industry lies not merely in introducing technology, but in cultivating a culture that enables research findings to be applied in the field. Technologies such as precision agriculture and smart farming only work when farmers view agriculture as a business and make their own decisions within such a framework.
Reflecting on her visits to farmland in Nagano and Sado (Japan), she expressed concern that despite well-developed agricultural environments, Japan is facing a shortage of farmers. She saw strong potential for mutual benefit, suggesting that insights gained by African youth through agricultural engagement could contribute to agriculture in Japan as its population declines.
Mr. Susumu Tsubaki, Director of OS Trading & Investments Pte. Ltd. / Founder & Representative Director of AAIC Holdings Pte.Ltd., identified two essential conditions for agriculture to become a viable investment sector: drastic productivity improvement and value addition through processing. Referring to China’s experience, where agricultural productivity (yield per hectare) for major staple crops increased by approximately fivefold over a 50‑year period, he explained that Africa currently faces a significant gap, with fertilizer application rates at roughly one‑thirtieth of China’s level and mechanization rates at about one‑fiftieth. Closing this gap, he emphasized, represents the most critical challenge.
Mr. Tsubaki also introduced his work in operating macadamia nut plantations and establishing processing facilities in Rwanda and Tanzania, as well as export models targeting the Japanese market. He noted that building an integrated value chain encompassing production, processing, and export has contributed to job creation and the stabilization of rural economies. With regard to rural depopulation and migration, he suggested that a “hybrid model” could be a realistic option, one that combines the development of processing industries and diversified businesses in rural areas with temporary labor migration by individuals who have received appropriate education, linking remittances and subsequent reinvestment back into rural communities.
Ms. Kumba Daffeh Kah, President of Tresor Women Warriors, leading a network of over 7,000 women farmers in The Gambia, emphasized the need to build agriculture not as subsistence activity but as a sustainable business ecosystem. She noted that growth in agriculture lies not only in production but also in the entire value chain—processing, storage, logistics, and market access.
She identified major barriers to scaling agribusiness: limited access to land, lack of start-up capital, and challenges in mechanization due to land fragmentation. To address these issues, she is promoting cooperative models for sharing land and finances, and establishing a tomato processing factory scheduled to begin operations soon. The factory will provide stable markets for local farmers and serve as a youth empowerment hub, planning to recruit ten youth aged 18–35 for training in agricultural technology and entrepreneurship. With the average age of farmers rising into the late 40s to 60s, she stressed the urgency of creating mechanisms that attract young people to agriculture.
Q&A SESSION
During the Q&A session, participants raised questions on topics including capacity-building models, agricultural trade between Japan and Africa, and how engagement in agriculture affects young people’s migration intentions.
On migration, Mr. Aikawa shared an example from Honduras, where high school students who experienced the SHEP approach saw their intention to migrate drop from 42% before the program to 24% after. He noted that when youth come to see agriculture not as something they are compelled to do, but as a field in which they can think, research, plan, and make decisions, their attitudes and future choices can change significantly. He expressed plans to continue collecting data to further examine these effects.
Mr. Tsubaki pointed out that capacity building is ultimately linked to financial resources, yet incremental solutions such as agricultural cooperatives and lease financing are beginning to emerge locally. Regarding overseas work, he emphasized that while irregular migration must be avoided, skilled and well-prepared overseas employment can play a positive role by enabling remittances and reinvestment under the “hybrid model.”
CLOSING
In her closing summary, moderator Chika Kondoh highlighted two key points.
First, the importance of understanding Africa not as a monolithic entity, but through the specific contexts of each country, region, and farming community.
Second, the need for two-way co-creation between Japan and Africa, moving beyond one-way provision of appropriate technologies from Japan, and ensuring that learnings from Africa’s practical innovations are also applied in Japan.
The session reaffirmed the growing importance of youth, technology, and the private sector in addressing agricultural challenges and advancing the industry. It also demonstrated the tangible potential for Japan and Africa to deepen their collaboration through mutual learning and shared innovation.