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Agricultural value chains worldwide provide essential support to livelihoods, ecosystem services, and the growing bioeconomy. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic slowed down or reversed decades of agricultural growth and exposed the vulnerabilities of farmers and the food insecure in Africa, thus reiterating the need to build resilience, agility, and adaptability for a sustainable agriculture. Existing social, political, environmental, and economic challenges demonstrate that a path to faster sustainable growth is increased productivity through improved input quality, of which technical inputs are a part. This work presents a perspective calling for African innovative competence in technological and methodological applications and solutions as part of the most critical area of a holistic organization for social progress. It finds that while performances of previous agricultural transformation efforts offer insights for future directions, novel pathways fitting to the diversity of situations and contexts on the continent are needed. These may include vertical agriculture in land‐constrained regions to grow high‐value products, ocean or sea farming in coastal regions, development of multiple‐harvesting crops, and self‐replicating plants. Developing standards that integrate current scientific methodologies and technologies with indigenous knowledge for agricultural growth and disaster management will bring the complementary benefits of both worlds into optimal development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Energy consumption across the African continent is expected to increase sharply in the next two decades, largely due to population growth, urbanization, and rising incomes. Much of the energy consumption is in the form of wood biomass, kerosene, and diesel. Africa's energy demand trajectory points to a future scenario where its contribution to global greenhouse gas emissions will threaten global sustainability. Furthermore, existing supply capacity is unlikely to meet the rising demand for energy. Africa's transition to renewable energy is needed to balance future energy supply and demand with climate-related externalities. A key barrier to this solution is Africa's energy finance gap, which calls for a concerted effort by investors in Africa's energy markets and governments, as well as global development partners. We highlight the direct link between Africa's energy finance gap and the long-run scenario for the global climate crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]