Cohort 1 - Call for Applications Report

The Call for Applications resulted in a total of 849 applicants, out of which 288 met the high-quality standards for prequalification. The accelerator program successfully attracted women-led or co-led agribusinesses, with 69% of applicants featuring at least one woman in the founding team. The majority of applicants (72%) indicated that they were targeting smallholder farmers in their business model, and 52% claimed to have a digital innovation, highlighting the potential for technology in transforming the food systems sector. The most mentioned crops were maize, beans, soya beans, potatoes, livestock, and rice, underscoring the importance of diversifying food production. The accelerator program core team analyzed the performance of the Call for Applications and recommended several strategies to improve the next Call. Based on the insights gained, the team suggested reducing the number of required attachments to increase the completion rate of applications. The team also plans to target previous applicants who almost made it to the shortlist with personalized emails to encourage them to reapply. In addition, the team recommended exploring alternative marketing strategies to reach potential applicants who are not active on social media, and partnering with local accelerators and incubators to leverage their networks and resources

Info Note: Strengthening Food Systems Transformation in East and Southern Africa: Leveraging Science Driven Business Acceleration to Catalyse Private Sector Finance

• Agriculture in Africa has untapped potential to meet regional and global food demands, but it faces challenges like fragmentation, inefficient value chains, and climate shocks. Transforming food systems will come at a cost. • There is an opportunity to harness business acceleration as a catalyst for private sector financing food systems transformation, and a powerful scaling mechanism for climate-smart agriculture (CSA). • Science and research have a role to play in business acceleration to support the adoption and strengthening of CSA practices, benefiting both agribusiness performance and smallholder farmers. • Combining tailored CSA technical assistance with investment readiness in an integrated approach holds significant potential for driving regional food systems transformation because it ensures that agribusinesses not only have access to the necessary knowledge and expertise but are also well-prepared to secure the financial resources required for implementing sustainable and climate-smart solutions. • Selecting appropriate funding partners and mechanisms, acquiring investment knowledge, nurturing relationships with capital providers, and showcasing social and environmental impact are vital for successful financing in the agriculture sector

CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator Kick-Off Workshop

This report provides an overview of the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator (CFSA) program’s Kick-off workshop held at Norrsken House in Rwanda. The Kick-off workshop serves as a key milestone for the program because it is the official commencement of the technical assistance of the first cohort of 10 selected agribusinesses. It highlights the program’s objectives, addresses the challenges faced by agribusinesses in securing private sector investment, presents an outline of the needs for the APs as input for the program curriculum co-creation, and sets clear intentions for achieving WP 3’s objectives through the CFSA program

Leveraging food system transformation in Latin America through scaling high impact business models

Key messages: 1) A framework was developed and applied to identify Climate-Smart Food Systems (CSFS) business models in the Latin America (LATAM) region with the potential to implement and scale climate mitigation and resilient practices across several food production systems. 2) Through the analysis, a pipeline of eight high-impact potential companies were identified to facilitate matchmaking with private sector investors. 3) Selected CSFS companies include agroforestry (i.e., coffee and cocoa), regenerative livestock production and silvipastoral systems, with positive impacts on social (e.g., gender and youth) and economic aspects. 4) Some of the most important challenges identified for implementing and scaling CSFS include: 1) access to capital, especially for long-term projects; 2) access to information and technical assistance; and 3) market validation for some products, especially fruits. 5) Regarding technical assistance, focus should be on implementing measurement, reporting and verification (MRV) of emissions, accessing carbon markets and providing guidance for adoption of CSFS practices and project review and discussion for up- and middle-stream companies. 5) The CIAT-CCAFS Impact Assessment Tool showed potential for evaluating CSFS performance of companies (i) potential impact assessment and (ii) additionality of investments regarding mitigation, adaptation and productivity

CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator Entrepreneur Spotlight: Afri-Farmers Market – Leveraging Technology to Empower Rural Farmers

A blog profiling the Afri-Farmers Market which is one of the agribusinesses that the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator (CFSA) is supporting to scale climate-smart innovations that address food system challenges

CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator Entrepreneur Spotlight: Transforming Communities through Nutritious Food: The Yellow Star Produce and Food Processors Journey

A blog profiling the Yellow Star Produce and Food Processors who is one of the agribusinesses that the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator (CFSA) is supporting to scale climate-smart innovations that address food system challenges

What’s science got to do with it? Meet the first cohort from the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator Program

Blog introducing the objective of the CGIAR Food Systems Accelerator (CFSA) program and first cohort