The scene is familiar across Africa: A farmer bends over maize plants, hand-weeding row after row under the scorching sun. Planting took three weeks when it should have taken three days—the rains were unpredictable, and by the time she finished, the first plants were already struggling while the last went into dry soil. Harvest will be the same story. Manual harvesting, significant post-harvest losses, back-breaking labor for diminishing returns. She knows mechanization could

From Raw Materials to Global Markets: How Brazil Transformed Its Agricultural Value Chains and What Africa Can Replicate The story is told in two contrasting numbers. Africa produces approximately 70 percent of the world's raw cocoa, yet it only produces 16 percent of intermediate cocoa products, which are worth two to three times more per ton than the raw cocoa beans. Meanwhile, in Brazil, agribusiness as a whole including agricultural inputs and processing accounted for alm

How women from Africa and Brazil are changing the status quo and creating opportunities in the agribusiness sector