This session discusses how science‑based solutions, paired with policy reforms, public investment, blended finance, and other de-risking tools, can strengthen climate‑resilient agri‑food investments and crowd in private capital through coordinated public–private action. It will also introduce the ADB–CGIAR Clearinghouse Facility as an operational platform that converts scientific and technical innovations into investment-ready inputs for sovereign and non‑sovereign projects.
Opening Remarks
Maximo Torero, Chief Economist, FAO
Roundtable 1: Aligning Sovereign and Private Finance Across Agri-Food Value Chains
This roundtable focuses on how agri-food value chains are enabled and led, and why closer coordination between sovereign and non-sovereign operations is essential to scale private investment. It highlights ADB’s comparative advantage in packaging public and private interventions to unlock value-chain financing.
Moderator: Martin Lemoine, Unit Head, Agribusiness, PSOD, ADB
Keynote presentation: Unlocking Agri-Food Value Chains: Aligning Sovereign and Private Finance for Scaled Investment
Mohamed Manssouri, ADG/Director, FAO Investment Centre
Panelists:
- Mohamed Manssouri, Assistant Director General and Director FAO Invetsment Centre
- Ruben G. Echeverria, Senior Advisor, Agricultural Development, Gates Foundation
- Dr. Solomon Gizaw, Head of the TAAT Clearinghouse, IITA
- Suhas Joshi, Chair of the Board-The Good Rice Alliance, Director- Carbon Initiative Lead, Bayer South Asia
Roundtable 2: From Innovation to Investment — Bridging Science, Capital, and Partnerships
The session aims to move from diagnosis to practical solutions and to highlight how different actors can work together to align public finance, private capital, and innovation finance.
Moderator: Shenggen Fan, ADB Chair Professor and Dean Academy of Global Food Economics and Policy (AGFEP), China Agricultural University
Presentation: ADB-CGIAR Clearinghouse Facility
- Shingo Kimura
- Xi Cao, SD2-AFNR, ADB
Panelists:
- Micheal Kremer (technology deployment, digital financing, how to scale, india case—identify innovations that to be scaled with governments, social-technological innovations/AI tools)
- Yvonne Pinto, CGIAR Asia Representative and Director General, International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) (IRRI-WB collaboration under Kerala Climate Resilient Agri-Value Chain Modernization (KERA))
- Appolinaire Djikeng, Director General, International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)- around TAAT,experience with World Bank/AfDB (national systems
- Mark Smith, Director General, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
- Johan Swinnen, Director General, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
