Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT), a pivotal initiative of the African Development Bank (AfDB) Group has provided more than 13 million farmers in Africa with climate-smart technologies in less than ten years.
TAAT has also successfully carried out training in adaptation best practices, which has increased crop production by an estimated 25 million tons.
The initiative is deploying proven, high-impact technologies like drought-resistant and heat-tolerant seed varieties to farmers across the continent, improving production, creating jobs, and boosting incomes.
Notably, climate-smart technologies like heat-tolerant maize are helping Africa’s farmers grow more food in more places impacted by climate change.
In Nigeria, TAAT provided 6,500 tons of improved seeds as well as training to farmers and partners, through the Bank’s African Emergency Food Production Facility. These interventions enabled wheat cultivation to scale from 11,820 hectares in 2021 to nearly 400,000 hectares in 2025, with yields increasing nearly 30 percent in targeted regions.
In addition, the programme supported an increase in food production by facilitating the disbursement of over 29,600 metric tons of seed and more than 180,400 metric tons of fertilizers. This comprehensive programme benefitted 710,000 farmers, culminating in the production of over 2.1 million metric tons of food.
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Sadly, Africa is on the frontline of global climate risk and there are concerns that if the continent does not adapt quickly to the impacts of climate change, its production of staple crops including wheat and maize is projected to shrink by 20 percent by 2050.
That’s according to composite research provided by the Gates Foundation, the United Nations body The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and Sesi Technologies. In addition to reducing the quantity of food available to eat, this will mean a reduction in agriculture, the sector that employs more than half of sub-Saharan Africa’s workforce, and thus a threat to a main source of livelihood.
The AfDB strongly believes that widespread use of climate-smart agriculture can build the sector’s resilience to climate change.
Climate-smart agricultural technologies like heat-tolerant seeds have enormous potential to bolster Africa’s food production, strengthen climate resilience and boost farmer incomes. However, many people struggle to adopt these technologies because too little information is available about how they work and can be scaled up.
The Bank recently hosted an online Forum on Promoting Climate-Smart Agriculture for African Farmers’ Resilience to Climate Change. With about 390 participants from 34 African as well as 10 non-regional countries, the Forum invited agriculture experts to discuss what works, lay the groundwork for agribusiness partnerships and promote climate-smart agriculture.
The online Forum brought the work of development institutions, research centers, as well as private and public sector players committed to African agriculture adapting to climate change.
Meanwhile, AfDB also has deployed more than 80 climate-smart technologies across the continent, including: drought-tolerant maize, heat-resistant wheat, climate-resilient rice, improved livestock breeds, water-saving irrigation kits, soil fertility boosters (such as natural phosphates) and agroforestry seed systems.
Millions of farmers using these technologies are unaware they have been provided through a Bank Group-led initiative because the technologies are adopted through local governments, farmer cooperatives, private companies, and national research systems.
Other key players in the sector
Farmer organisations and private companies are expanding the reach and impact of programmes that promote climate-smart technologies, such as improved seeds and fertilisers, among Africa’s smallholder farmers. These initiatives combine input supply with advisory support, credit, and climate and weather information, often delivered through digital tools that support farmers preparedness.
Research conducted in Ethiopia suggests that farmers who belong to cooperatives are more likely to adopt climate-smart practices, including mulching, river diversion, and integrated pest management, with adoption patterns also influencing non-members.
Across Africa, private companies and telecom operators are scaling similar bundled input-and-information services. In West Africa, for example, Ignitia partners with telecoms such as MTN to deliver hyper-local, GPS-based weather forecasts via simple airtime subscriptions, enabling farmers to better time activities like fertiliser application and reduce losses.
Similarly, by combining various types of financing and offering credit guarantees, the Africa Fertilizer Financing Mechanism is reducing risks for lenders and keeps fertilizer and other inputs flowing to African smallholder farmers. Housed at the AfDB Group, AFFM has been implementing partial trade credit guarantee projects in eight African countries. O
One trade credit guarantee was leveraged 4.6 times, enabling the distribution of 145,772 metric tons of fertiliser benefiting 987,676 smallholder farmers between 2019 and 2025. Women represent 34.5 percent of beneficiaries. The Mechanism also facilitated training in good agricultural practices for more than 171,363 smallholder farmers.
Who says what
Western Region Farmers’ Network leader Margaret Awinja says she’s been conducting trainings and facilitating opportunities to access seeds, land, fertilizers and other climate-smart agriculture inputs to some 10,000 vulnerable Kenyan farmers.
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