Africa faces a growing and complex nutrition crisis stemming from poor diets and staple crops that are low in nutrients. According to the 2025 State of Food Security and Nutrition Report, more than 300 million people across the continent are food insecure, accounting for 43 per cent of the world’s stunted children. At the same time, 20 per cent of African women are obese and at risk of diabetes.
For example, as populations grow, global demand for rice – the world’s most popular grain – has surged. Current oversupply indicates production frameworks can keep pace but the uptake of improved practices and more nutritious rice varieties remains low, even as farmland and deforestation expand.
Research and development proving a point
Global agricultural research organisations such as CGIAR can play a central role in solving the interconnected challenges of oversupply, malnutrition and unsustainable farming through sustainable approaches that grow and process more and better rice. New climate-resilient, pest-resistant, higher-yielding and biofortified rice varieties have already strengthened food and nutrition security across Africa and lifted millions out of poverty. Other varieties thrive even amid soil salination, one of agriculture’s greatest threats. Current research also targets low-emission staples to cut methane emissions. Rice alone accounts for 11 per cent of greenhouse gases worldwide. But while moonshot innovations are available, the investment to bring them to scale has lagged.
Agri-innovation for nutritional gains in staple crops
In many countries, rice makes up 50 to 60 per cent of people’s daily calories. Yet most rice varieties are calorie-dense but nutrient-poor, with a high glycemic index (GI) that contributes to obesity, diabetes and other metabolic disorders. In other words, they lack micronutrients essential for healthy growth and development.
Established innovations like CGIAR’s 3-in-1 Golden Rice are biofortified to address vitamin A, iron and zinc deficiency, while other new rice varieties improve immune systems, especially helpful in poverty-stricken communities. Complementary innovations, such as drought monitoring systems and the AWARE platform, offer farmers and businesses early warning alerts for flood and drought, while online governance dashboards guide business investment and finance at a time when every single penny counts.
But bringing innovations to market takes years and countless promising varieties remain stuck in the lab. Transforming rice systems across the Global South – from production to processing – is a moonshot with a potential to benefit the billions of people who rely on this staple grain for food and income. Yet this potential can only be realised if countries, banks and institutions invest in faster research and development and if policies and financing exist to get innovations to where they are needed most. While the risks seem high, CGIAR research alone has consistently demonstrated a 10:1 return on investment. But securing buy-in means every stakeholder across the value chain must benefit.
Women lead a parboiling revolution
One such success is CGIAR’s ‘GEM’ rice parboiling innovation, revolutionising rice production across Côte d’Ivoire. Affordable, efficient and safer than conventional methods, the technology already provides better quality, nutritious rice for more than two million consumers monthly, while generating higher income for the women entrepreneurs trialling it.
Parboiling – partially boiling rice in its husk – preserves micronutrients and lowers GI, offering a healthier rice especially for people at risk of diabetes. Traditional parboiling is labour-intensive, relies on firewood that damages forests, fills process rooms with unhealthy smoke and poses significant hazards from fire and boiling water. It also causes nutrient loss in the rice. Women, who dominate parboiling across Africa, often work in unsafe conditions with limited access to improved technologies or support networks.
AfricaRice’s new GEM system (Grain quality enhancer, Energy-efficient and durable Material) is championed by women-led cooperatives. GEM is efficient, safer and environmentally friendly parboiling, using newly designed fan-assisted gasifier stoves that reduce splashing of boiling water via sealed steaming drums and use rice husk fuel instead of firewood. Rice husk is an almost cost-free by-product of milling that provides clean energy, reduces smoke and deforestation and produces biochar – a by-product being trialled as an organic fertiliser. Using these husks, GEM is shown to reduce energy costs by 22.3 per cent and significantly lowers CO₂-equivalent emissions.
Adopting staple crops innovation for better, healthier lives
To help scale up innovations like GEM, AfricaRice partners with Healthy Diet Innovation Platforms that bring together women’s groups, youth, researchers and equipment manufacturers to promote awareness of the new technology. So far, 156 GEM parboiler groups across 11 African countries are engaged in GEM approaches. These groups now collectively supply over two million consumers per month and women distributors in Côte d’Ivoire are expanding their businesses across multiple cities, responding to growing demand.
Scaling innovation like GEM requires significant investment in research on both the technology and improved crop varieties, risk-ready financing to support start-ups and knowledge frameworks for training, quality certification and market intelligence. Above all, well-researched and informed policies must ensure equipment is affordable, inputs and loans are accessible and markets are open to new products.
A triple win for Africa
These innovations offer a triple win: healthier populations, empowered women entrepreneurs and a more sustainable rice value chain. The story of nutritious rice, led by women and powered by innovation, demonstrates what is possible when science for staple crops meets local entrepreneurial spirit – a single innovation sparks a countrywide moonshot.
