Pitch AgriHack West Africa 2017 is a competition for start-ups and entrepreneurs in the e-agriculture sector. The objective is to help develop these business and at the same time contribute to accelerate the adoption of technology services in the agricultural sector. This edition of the prize is open for start-ups from West African countries and owners must not be older than 35 years. Candidates must be owners of a mobile application or an ICT service in the agricultural sector. Winning start-ups will receive from CTA up to Euros 15,000 to advance their services, apart from investment and...
Making Sustainable Agriculture a Future for Youth in Africa was the joint African Union and European Union Agriculture Ministers Conference held in Rome, at the Food and Agriculture Organization premises. The AU-EU Agriculture Ministerial Conference aimed to build up political engagement ahead of the Africa-EU Summit in November 2017 whose objective is a common vision on how to generate sustainable, inclusive jobs for African youth in the agri-food sector and rural economy. Making Sustainable Agriculture a Future for Youth in Africa Plenary Opening The opening plenary was addressed by Mr José...
FAO, along with several partners, is involved in the implementation of ICT initiatives in Africa The majority of family farmers in developing countries live rural areas and in most cases don't have access to technology and digital agricultural services. Through the use of ICTs, farmers have more access to information on markets, weather and nutrition. The digital service project is part of FAO's Digital Strategy and is aimed at people in the field, local governments, community leaders and extension workers. The project aims to develop four apps designed to help farmers have better...
Agribusiness TV, has been awarded the 2017 United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Project Prize in the “Media” category. Agribusiness TV is a web TV whose mission is to use video as a promotional tool and (re)valorisation of the agricultural sector to young eyes, showing the successful course of young agricultural entrepreneurs and their innovations in Africa. The web TV has been promoting stories of innovative African youth agripreneurs and inspiring young people interested in agribusiness entrepreneurship in the whole world. The web and mobile application receive a...
In a recent article on Harvard Business Review, Ndubuisi Ekekwe explores how digital technology is poised at providing a solution to increase farm productivity in Africa. In this article he reviews the food challenges affecting Africa such as weather changes, rural-urban migration that deprives farming communities of young people and deforestation amongst many challenges. While African governments have employed many policy instruments to improve farm productivity, yields are still marginally improving. The article notes that African entrepreneurs are interested in how farmers work and how...
The Youth for Africa and SDGs YAS ! Portal is an online portal created by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) to support the development and growth of youth entrepreneurship in Africa. The portal aims to help entrepreneurs by providing them advice on enterprise development, serve as an African hub for support services concerning African youth entrepreneurship and run challenges and award financing to youth to develop SDG related business ideas. UNDP is seeking advice and help through an online challenge to develop the online portal and keeping it sustainable. The challenge is open...
ICTs are pivotal for the future of agriculture. As they are finding an ever important space in most sectors of everyday life, agriculture should't be an exeption. ICTs can help in many ways producers and particularly smallholders in their livelihoods and development. In particular, ICTs can be an essential tool for young people aspiring to create their own agricultural business. As most of them have grown with these tools, they are more eager to use them in their worklife as well. This handbook published by the CTA is a guide designed for aspiring ICT entrepreneurs to instruct them with the...
Youth, Agripreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals Workshop Date 8 May, 2017. 09:00-16:00 Location Sida Headquarters, Valhallavägen 199, Stockholm, Sweden Description The aim of this workshop organized jointly by SIANI and SLU Global is to develop ideas and tools to engage the african...
By the year 2050, the world population is expected to grow to 9.7 billion: demand for food will grow dramatically. Following a present trend, 2/3 of this population will be concetrated in big cities. In sub-saharan Africa, the number of 15-24 year olds will dramatically increase. The challenge at this point is to engage the youth in Africa to work in agriculture and develop its potential. The problem is that young generations living in rural areas prefer to migrate to big cities in search for a stable job instead of trying to develop the rural areas in which they grew up. The aim of this...
The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is set to launch a new book entitled, ICT Agripreneurship Guide – A Path to Success for Young ACP Entrepreneurs. This books relays CTA's experience of working with young people in the information and communications technology (ICT) sector The book is set to be launched at the African Agripreneurs Youth Forum (AYA Forum) in Ibadan, Nigeria. The AYA Forum is organised by the African Development Bank (AfDB), in collaboration with CTA, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and the African Agribusiness Incubation...
Youth, Agripreneurship and the Sustainable Development Goals Workshop Date 8 May, 2017. 09:00-16:00 Location Sida Headquarters, Valhallavägen 199, Stockholm, Sweden Description The aim of this workshop organized jointly by SIANI and SLU Global is to develop ideas and tools to engage the african...