Dar es Salaam, Nov. 10 -- Wherever way you look at it, smallholder farmers are the unsung heroes of our food system. Day in and day out, they toil under the sun, juggling unpredictable weather, pests, and market pressures, you name them-all to ensure our plates remain full.

And yet, despite their dedication, a persistent challenge remains: access.

Not just access to land or markets, but access to the right inputs at the right time, and perhaps more importantly, the right knowledge to turn those inputs into harvests that truly transform livelihoods.

For example, a bag of improved maize seeds or a sack of fertilizer is only as effective as the farmers know-how. Plant them incorrectly, misapply fertilizer, or neglect spacing, and even the...