Latest news with #agriculturalinnovation
Zawya
3 days ago
- Business
- Zawya
Prime Cabinet Secretary (PCS) Musalia Mudavadi attends Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC) Ministerial Meeting in China
The Prime Cabinet Secretary and Cabinet Secretary for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, H.E. Dr. Musalia Mudavadi, is in China, attending the Ministerial Meeting of Coordinators on the Implementation of Follow-Up Actions of the Forum on China–Africa Cooperation (FOCAC). The high-level engagement is convened to evaluate the progress achieved since the 2024 FOCAC Summit of Heads of State and Government, held in Beijing, and to define priority areas ahead of the next summit. The meeting is attended by China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi and representatives from all 54 African member states of FOCAC. As part of his official itinerary, H.E. Mudavadi visited the Hunan Hybrid Rice Research Center at the Hunan Academy of Agricultural Sciences (HUNAAS) in Mapoling, Changsha. Founded in 1984 by globally renowned Academician Yuan Longping—celebrated as the 'Father of Hybrid Rice'—the center has made significant advancements in rice production through innovative research and technology. The hybrid varieties developed at HUNAAS can yield over 18 tonnes per hectare, marking a transformational leap in food production. The visit presents an opportunity for Kenya to explore enhanced collaboration in agricultural innovation, aimed at strengthening national food security and sustainable agricultural development. Dr. Mudavadi also toured the Malanshan Video Cultural and Creative Industrial Park, a thriving hub of creative innovation where over 60,000 young talents are engaged in transforming cultural ideas into commercially viable digital content. The park showcases how China is revolutionizing its film and content production industry through the seamless integration of culture and technology. The CS noted that Kenya, blessed with a dynamic and creative youth population, possesses similar potential. He emphasized the importance of fostering innovation and investing in the creative economy to generate employment and build sustainable livelihoods, particularly for the country's young digital creators, artists, and storytellers. H.E. Mudavadi's engagements reflect Kenya's commitment to strengthening strategic cooperation with China in priority areas such as agriculture, innovation, trade, and creative industries. Distributed by APO Group on behalf of Ministry of Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Republic of Kenya.
Gulf Business
4 days ago
- Business
- Gulf Business
Beyond the risk register: Why future-ready leadership demands strategic discomfort
Image: Supplied The year is 2029, and vertical farming has become a symbol of national resilience in the Middle East. Governments had have poured billions into hydroponic megafarms. Food security indices have climbed and export deals rolled in. The region has also been hailed globally as a pioneer of agricultural innovation – a place where technology had triumphed over land scarcity and climate stress. And then it all collapses. A fungal microbe, exploiting the genetic uniformity of hydroponic crops, mutated in a single facility, sweeps through the region's interconnected systems. Within six weeks, 40 per cent of regional crop output is lost. Emergency imports are then scrambled at record costs. What seemed like a shining example of resilience is exposed as dangerously brittle. The risk was known. The signals were there – just not heard, or not heeded. This isn't a possible 'future' story about agriculture. It spotlights leadership under complexity. From pandemic blindspots to supply chain fragilities and climate volatility to AI backlash, organisations across every sector continue to be surprised by visible and often documented disruptions that were ultimately sidelined. Known, but ignored Why does this keep happening? Not because the risks are invisible but because they're inconvenient, ambiguous, or don't fit the dominant narrative. In environments that reward momentum and performance, there is often little appetite for the slow work of horizon scanning or scenario stress-testing – especially when things appear to be going well. Risks that are uncomfortable or unfamiliar are easily dismissed as fringe. And when success stories dominate, dissenting signals – especially weak ones – struggle to break through. The vertical farming collapse followed this exact pattern. Early warnings were buried in obscure journals, dismissed as edge-case thinking. There was no lack of intelligence. But attention was highly selective. The illusion of the list Many organisations believe that because a risk appears on a register, it is being managed. But listing a risk and engaging with it are two very different things. Take the World Economic Forum's Global Risks Report . Each year, it publishes a heat map identifying the most severe and likely risks facing the world over the next decade. Climate volatility. Biodiversity loss. Emerging infectious diseases. Cybercrime. Water crises. Year after year, these threats are mapped, flagged, and even color-coded – often with 'blobs' so large they're impossible to miss. And yet the most common organisational response is to file these risks under 'context', rather than integrate them into core planning. They are acknowledged, but rarely rehearsed. The problem isn't the heat map. The problem is what happens after. The mere appearance of a threat on a list can create a false sense of preparedness – a box ticked, a risk 'covered'. Risk registers often serve as a checklist – useful for reporting, but misleading when it comes to real readiness. Rarely do leadership teams ask: What would we actually do if this happened tomorrow? And most registers fail to consider how risks interact. A CEO scandal, shifting consumer ethics, a tech system failure, and policy fragmentation – individually manageable, perhaps. Together? Catastrophic. Strategic foresight starts where the risk register ends – not with what's on the list but with how those risks might collide. From risk registers to risk realism So, what does it take to build a future-ready organisation in a time of converging disruption? We propose three shifts: Expand peripheral vision: Build structured capacity to detect early signals from the margins – in scientific literature, startup ecosystems, citizen movements, and niche media. Weak signals are often the earliest indicators of system shifts. Unless you design for it, they won't rise through the usual filters. Institutionalise strategic discomfort: Challenge internal optimism regularly. Build in moments to stress-test assumptions and rehearse disruption. Reward people who challenge prevailing wisdom, not just those who confirm it. Map risk interdependencies: Move beyond lists. Use systems thinking to explore how risks could combine. Model chain reactions and secondary effects. Ask not just 'What could go wrong?', but 'What could go wrong together ?' Future-readiness is a cultural trait Foresight isn't about crystal balls or radical prediction. It's about readiness for uncertainty – and a willingness to engage the uncomfortable. The most resilient organisations aren't those that see the future clearly but those that build the muscles to adapt to futures they can't fully see. That begins with humility, curiosity, and the courage to ask: What might we be missing? This demands a cultural shift. One that values critical inquiry over certainty. Signals over noise. And reflection over reaction. In the aftermath of every high-profile shock – from pandemics to tech crashes – leaders demand tighter regulation, faster protocols, and better reporting. But those alone won't build adaptive capacity. Because in every one of these cases, there were warnings. The failure was not one of ignorance – but of attention. Foresight failed because it asked the system to be uncomfortable – and the system declined. Three questions every board should be asking Which of our success stories might be blinding us to emerging fragilities? What signals are we currently incentivised to ignore? If three of our 'low-impact' risks hit at once – what would break first? If your strategy doesn't create space for doubt, it's not a strategy – it's a narrative. If your risk register doesn't provoke discomfort, it's incomplete. And if your future looks smooth and linear, it's probably fiction. Doris Viljoen is a director at the Institute for Futures Research at Read:
