Innovation for Food Systems Resilience

About the programme

Smallholder farmers are at the heart of food systems, yet unpredictable weather and climate shocks, limited access to machinery, finance and insurance, post-harvest losses, weak market connections and gaps in timely, locally relevant agricultural information can undermine their livelihoods.

The Innovation for Food Systems Resilience programme, implemented by the WFP Innovation Accelerator with support from the John Deere Foundation, identifies and supports innovations that help farmers overcome these barriers, improve productivity and build resilience, while strengthening rural enterprises.

Its portfolio spans digital agriculture and advisory services; climate intelligence, early warning and anticipatory action; inclusive finance and agricultural insurance; post-harvest management, storage and cold chains; mechanization and processing technologies; market linkages; and enterprise development.

By bringing together innovators, WFP country offices, governments, financial institutions, cooperatives and private-sector partners, the programme aims to generate evidence to inform the sustainable adoption and scaling of solutions tailored to local needs.

PARTNERSHIPS FOR INNOVATION

Supported by the John Deere Foundation

Since 2021, John Deere and the John Deere Foundation have supported WFP’s mission to end hunger with more than $8 million in philanthropic funding and employee engagement, advancing innovation, emergency response and stronger food systems. In 2023, the partnership helped develop WFP’s first organizational innovation strategy. Building on this partnership, the Foundation supports the Innovation for Food Systems Resilience programme, helping WFP and its partners put WFP’s innovation strategy into practice by testing and scaling solutions that strengthen smallholder farmers’ livelihoods and deliver food systems resilience.

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What we offer

The programme provides participating innovations with tailored support to develop, implement and scale innovative solutions in collaboration with WFP country offices and local partners. Support is adapted to the maturity, operating context and needs of each innovation and may include:

Technical, strategic and business support

to refine solutions, strengthen operations and develop viable pathways to scale.

Locally tailored implementation

with WFP country offices and local partners, adapting delivery to agricultural calendars, connectivity and farmers’ needs.

Partnerships and ecosystem connections

linking innovators with governments, cooperatives, financial institutions, buyers and technology providers.

Evidence and shared learning

to track results, address implementation challenges and exchange approaches that can be adapted across countries.

How we evaluate innovations

Innovations are assessed according to their relevance to farmers, strength of evidence, scalability and ability to deliver meaningful results within the programme period:

Relevance to smallholder farmers: The innovation should respond to a clearly identified challenge affecting smallholder farmers or rural enterprises and demonstrate the potential to complement or strengthen existing programmes and services.
Evidence and impact potential: The solution should demonstrate evidence, or credible potential, to improve farmers’ incomes, yields, productivity or resilience, or to reduce their costs, time burdens and post-harvest losses.
Innovation and scalability: The solution should offer a strong and contextually relevant approach with the potential to operate at meaningful scale or be replicated in other suitable contexts.

In addition to the core selection criteria, innovations are assessed against the following considerations to support effective and inclusive implementation:

Country and ecosystem readiness: The local operating environment should provide the foundations needed for implementation, including alignment with country priorities, support from relevant WFP country offices and connections to the local innovation and agricultural ecosystem.
Institutional alignment: The innovation should complement relevant WFP country-office priorities, programmes and technical workstreams, while creating opportunities for collaboration with governments, communities and other partners.
Delivery feasibility: The innovation and its partners should have the capacity, resources and implementation model required to deliver their proposed activities and intended results within the programme period.
Inclusion and accessibility: The solution should account for the needs of women, young people, remote communities and people who may face barriers related to connectivity, digital literacy, finance or access to technology.

Africa Cohort 2026–2027

The programme’s Africa cohort brings together farmer-centred innovations being supported during the 2026–2027 implementation period. The portfolio addresses interconnected challenges across agricultural value chains, from climate information, finance and insurance to mechanization, food processing, storage and market access.
Working across different country contexts, the supported innovations are developing and scaling practical models that respond to farmers’ needs, strengthen local delivery systems and connect technology with finance, knowledge and markets.

myAgro | Senegal and Côte d’Ivoire

myAgro helps farmers save for agricultural inputs and access climate-smart advice through their mobile phones. Farmer Direct supports savings planning, reminders and mobile-money payments, while Digital Training delivers local-language guidance through WhatsApp, video and audio. Field agents help farmers use the services, addressing barriers related to connectivity, digital literacy and access. More than 156,000 farmers in Côte d’Ivoire have enrolled in digital training. Women represent approximately 65 percent of myAgro’s farmer base in Senegal, supporting greater financial and agricultural inclusion.

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Ignitia | Ghana and Nigeria

Ignitia combines artificial intelligence and advanced physics to deliver highly localized weather forecasts and climate-smart agricultural advice through mobile phones. Farmers use this information to decide when to plant, protect crops and manage resources as rainfall becomes less predictable. Its work with WFP expanded to Ghana in 2024. The programme portfolio also includes a Nigeria-focused solution connecting radio, USSD and digital channels to provide practical climate and pest-risk information for agricultural decision-making.

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Advancing Rural Insurance, Strengthening Institutions and Empowerment (ARISE) | Multi-country

ARISE is digitizing agricultural insurance for farmers in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Haiti, Madagascar, Senegal and Zambia. By reducing reliance on cash-based premiums and payouts, the initiative aims to make insurance more accessible and support faster assistance after climate shocks, including for farmers without bank accounts or mobile wallets. It also strengthens financial knowledge and institutional capacity. In Ethiopia, ARISE supports the Ministry of Agriculture’s rural finance team and works through local agricultural advisers to improve access to financial and climate-risk services.

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Processing as a Service (PaaS) | Ghana and India

S4S Technologies brings solar-powered food preservation and processing to the farm gate through its Processing as a Service model. It turns cosmetically damaged produce into food ingredients and connects these products with food and beverage companies, reducing post-harvest losses and creating income opportunities. With WFP support, the company is expanding to Ghana and developing a women-led post-harvest network. The approach combines solar technology with finance, training and market access, helping farmers preserve harvests and enabling women entrepreneurs to build processing businesses.

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Viamo Voice Companion | United Republic of Tanzania

Viamo’s AI-enabled Voice Companion gives farmers and agricultural extension agents tailored advice through basic mobile phones, without an internet connection. Users ask questions in their local language and receive immediate, context-specific guidance on crop management, disease prevention and climate-resilient agriculture. In Tanzania, Viamo and the Farm to Market Alliance are testing the service with sunflower farmers in the northern and southern highlands. The initiative helps remote communities access timely agricultural information and make better decisions about their crops and resources.

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Farming with Intelligence | Ghana

Farming with Intelligence aims to improve productivity, resilience and incomes for smallholder farmers in Ghana. It delivers AI-powered training in local languages through voice and chatbot channels, promotes climate-smart and regenerative practices, and strengthens market and finance links through aggregation, digital profiling and credit scoring.

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Millet Post-harvest Management Innovations | Senegal

This WFP-led initiative strengthens Senegal's millet value chain by giving smallholders access to better drying, shelling, winnowing and storage technology. Women- and youth-led enterprises run the equipment as local service hubs, and producer groups are linked to processors and buyers.

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ThriveAgric | Nigeria

Thrive Agric is a Nigerian agri-tech company, founded in
2016, that has worked with over 100,000 African farmers. It gives smallholders quality farm inputs, machinery and data-driven advice to raise productivity, then connects them to local and global markets that pay premium prices for their harvest. With WFP, it is helping farmers in Northern Nigeria build more resilient local food systems.

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SheCan | Malawi

SheCan is a blended finance initiative that brings together donors and impact investors to expand women's financial inclusion. It offers affordable micro-loans and financial literacy support, and connects financial service providers with investors to reduce lending risk.

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SomFarm Fresh Cold Chain Initiative | Somalia

SomFarm Fresh aims to scale solar-powered, off-grid cold storage in Somalia, using fixed and mobile cold rooms at first-mile aggregation points and busy markets. Safe storage of fruit, vegetables, meat and milk extends shelf life and reduces spoilage.

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Arid and Semi-Arid Lands Agribusiness Accelerator | Kenya

This programme uses a demand-anchored venture-building approach to scale nature-based solution enterprises in Kenya's arid and semi-arid lands. It starts with large, structured buyers such as employers and processors, then builds a network of aggregation, processing, logistics and service businesses to meet that demand.

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Lersha | Ethiopia

Lersha is an Ethiopian agri-tech platform that turns weather forecasts into local-language early-warning alerts and advice for pastoralists and farmers. It reaches them through an app, SMS, voice messages and trained community agents and links them to finance, inputs and insurance.

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Impact-Based Forecasting for Anticipatory Action | Kenya

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Latin America and the Caribbean Cohort

Coming soon

Building on the programme’s work in Africa, the Latin America and the Caribbean cohort will explore how farmer-centred innovations can address similar challenges across a different and diverse regional context. The cohort is expected to focus on locally relevant solutions that can help smallholder farmers and rural communities manage climate and production risks, access timely agricultural information and appropriate technologies, reduce post-harvest losses and strengthen their connections to finance and markets.

While the core ambition remains the same, supporting more productive, inclusive and resilient food systems, the cohort will be shaped by the distinct agricultural systems, climate realities and priorities of countries and communities across Latin America and the Caribbean. More information about the cohort and its innovations will be shared soon.

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