When Srinivas Rao Pulavarti arrived in Benin in 2013, he came from an engineering and software-consulting background rather than a farming family. What drew him towards agriculture was a deceptively simple question: if a single seed can generate so much value, why do so many farmers struggle to make a living?

He decided to look for the answer not in theory, but in the field.

More than a decade later, that question has taken him into one of Benin’s most ambitious agricultural initiatives, within the Glo-Djigbé Industrial Zone (GDIZ). His work spans pineapple cultivation, precision irrigation, climate-smart agriculture, biotechnology and agricultural value chains. What began as an entrepreneurial leap has increasingly become part of a much larger story about how technology, private investment and public policy can work together to reshape African agriculture.

From Land to Ecosystem

Pulavarti first encountered Benin in 2013 and saw both the difficulties and the possibilities. Agriculture faced familiar constraints: inadequate irrigation, crop diseases, inconsistent planting material and limited access to modern technologies. Yet the continent offered something that immediately appealed to an entrepreneur who believed in thinking big: land, opportunity and room to build at scale.

Working across Benin, Togo, Ghana and Ethiopia, he developed a practical understanding of farming systems, rural communities and regional markets. Benin eventually emerged as the natural base. Its political stability, supportive governance, strategic geography and access to neighbouring markets offered the conditions he believed were necessary for long-term agricultural investment.

That opportunity found a particularly strong institutional setting in GDIZ.

Spread across approximately 1,640 hectares and located around 45 kilometres from the Port of Cotonou, the industrial zone has been conceived around industrialisation and value addition. Its wider objective is to process commodities within Benin rather than export them as raw materials, retaining more value, creating employment and strengthening export competitiveness. For investors, it offers infrastructure, policy clarity and an ecosystem designed for long-term projects.

It is here that Pulavarti is pursuing an integrated agricultural venture covering nearly 1,000 hectares of pineapple cultivation. Precision irrigation, scientific crop management, climate-smart practices and water conservation are brought together rather than treated as separate interventions.

The immediate objective is to produce premium-quality pineapples for domestic and international markets, particularly Europe. But the larger ambition is to demonstrate that African agriculture can move beyond primary production towards sophisticated, globally competitive value chains generating employment, exports, skills and long-term economic growth.

“Africa possesses enormous agricultural potential. My goal has always been to combine science, technology and sustainable farming practices to improve productivity, create rural employment and build resilient agricultural ecosystems.”