Rwanda adds Danforth Center to food innovation partnership

Saturday 14th November 2026

By inAfrika Newsroom

Rwanda has added the Donald Danforth Plant Science Center as a founding member of its Food Innovation Partnership. The US-based institute announced the agreement on 11 November at a session at the Rwanda Institute for Conservation Agriculture, another partner.

The partnership is led by Rwanda’s Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Resources. It brings together researchers, regulators and companies working on how to develop crops and get improved varieties into farmers’ hands. The Danforth Center said it would contribute to crop improvement, farm productivity and climate resilience, help move research into commercial use, and support work on regulation and scientific training.

The group is part of Rwanda’s 2026–2035 food innovation strategy. The strategy aims to create 30,000 jobs for young people in the food innovation economy and raise the value of agri-food exports above US$650 million by 2035. The announcement gave no separate funding figure for bringing the Danforth Center into the partnership.

The centre already works with the Rwanda Agriculture Board on a separate five-year, US$15 million project supported by the Gates Foundation. That project is designed to help Rwanda develop, regulate and deploy improved crop varieties for local conditions.

The centre and the board have also worked on cassava resistant to cassava brown streak disease, which damages the roots that farmers harvest. The centre said it expected to share progress on that work in 2027.

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