Africa’s agrifood systems face a convergence of challenges resulting from climate change, environmental degradation, conflict, and continued poverty. At the same time, the continent is under mounting pressure to provide affordable and healthy diets for its growing population, create meaningful employment and economic opportunities for youth, and address investment gaps in technology and infrastructure for accelerated and sustainable growth. Root and Tuber Crops (RTCs) have been a backbone of Africa’s food security for decades. RTCs are uniquely positioned to drive sustainable agrifood system transformation in Africa, especially in the face of climate change.
Root and Tuber Crops (RTCs) contribute more than 40% of Africa’s food production – and in several countries over 60%. While total production has doubled over the past 20 years, this growth has not resulted in increased productivity, resource efficiency, or economic and nutritional value. The technical challenges of RTCs are well known, including their relatively demanding seed systems, high postharvest losses, bulkiness, and perishability. These have been compounded by a comparative neglect in research, technical services, value chain development, and policy attention.
Despite these gaps, however, farmers have increasingly turned to RTCs for reliable harvests and higher incomes and consumers in rural and urban areas value RTCs as a building block of affordable and healthy diets. Projections of food and nutrition security under climate change and global crises scenarios agree that RTCs will be ever more important in future, and investors as well as policy makers have started to pay increasing attention to RTCs.
On September 4, 2025, the International Potato Center (CIP) and the Ministry of Agriculture of Senegal signed a landmark Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to strengthen food security, nutrition, and livelihoods. This partnership comes at a time when Senegal is prioritizing the development of potato and sweetpotato as strategic crops to address pressing challenges in its agrifood systems. With CIP’s technical support and Senegal’s commitment, the agreement demonstrates how science and innovation, combined with local ownership, can build resilient food systems.
The agreement comes at a critical moment, as Africa faces mounting climate shocks. Root and tuber crops hold immense potential to serve as pillars of resilience, nutrition, and a secure future. Partnerships are key to unlocking this potential and scaling their benefits across communities. Senegal has identified potato and sweetpotato as strategic crops that can play a critical role in addressing some of the nation’s most pressing challenges. Beyond their versatility as staple foods, both crops provide powerful solutions for nutrition and resilience. Orange-fleshed sweetpotato, for example, is rich in vitamin A and offers a sustainable way to address micronutrient deficiencies, while potato contributes significantly to food security by supplying reliable calories adaptable to diverse farming environments. Together, they also create livelihood opportunities, as their production and marketing stimulate income generation for farmers, traders, and small businesses.
Roots and tubers, often referred to as Africa’s silent strength, are more than staple crops they are engines of resilience, nutrition, and economic growth. The MoU represents a practical step toward reimagining Africa’s food systems. It illustrates the power of partnerships where scientific innovation meets political commitment, showing that progress is accelerated when research institutions and governments work hand in hand. The signing reflects a shared commitment to transform Senegal’s agrifood systems through science, innovation, and local ownership. It symbolizes far more than institutional collaboration. It represents an investment in the future of agrifood systems, one that is more productive, resilient, and inclusive, with people at the center of transformation.
Building on CIP’s successes in the region, recent experiences in West Africa demonstrate how improved potato and sweetpotato varieties, coupled with strong seed systems, have already transformed livelihoods. These efforts have enhanced food security in Nigeria and created new market opportunities in Ghana and Burkina Faso. The MoU with Senegal builds on these achievements and provides a strong foundation for delivering similar benefits tailored to the realities of Senegalese farmers and communities.
Investing in RTCs has the potential to accelerate Africa’s transition toward sustainable, climate-resilient, and equitable agrifood systems, since the local nature of their production and supply offer business opportunities to local entrepreneurs and sustain local economies, unlike other commodity crops which are globally traded and sourced. Naturally resilient to climate stress, rich in essential nutrients, and well-suited for inclusive, market-driven value chain development, RTCs offer a strategic pathway to build food security and economic opportunity.
Looking into the future, Root and Tuber Crops will move to the forefront of creating profitable, healthy and sustainable agrifood systems across the continent. Science and Innovation will be instrumental for fulfilling the potential of RTCs to meet the increasing demand in Africa and worldwide. Scientific tools, from genetic improvement to disease surveillance and resource-efficient production and post-harvest systems, are available that can improve the performance of RTCs and generate economic opportunities for farmers, youth and other stakeholders along the value chain.