agricultural university

The VALUE4HER project will increase incomes and employment opportunities for women by linking women-led agribusinesses with competitive high value regional and global markets, and improving women business leader’s technical and managerial skills, with training on market dynamics, to grow their agribusinesses further. The project, which will run initially for 2 years ( 2018–2020 ), will target women who own agribusinesses that operate in horticulture, grains, dairy, poultry, or fisheries value chains. Key activities include: Development of a digital database of women entrepreneurs for each region. Training women on business leadership and managerial skills. Development of one women’s agribusiness e-hub in each region, which will offer services to women entrepreneurs. Organisation of one ‘business-to-business’ fair and match-making event in each region. Provision of a competitive innovation fund to enhance linkages with women lower down the value chain and initiate efficiency measure...

26 February 2019. Hello Tractor and the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU have announced a partnership to increase smallholder farmers' access to mechanisation services and youth employment opportunities. The partnership will enable Hello Tractor to expand its services across Nigeria and Kenya to connect 5,000 smallholder farmers to mechanisation services, as well as to create jobs for youth as tractor operators and booking agents. Hello Tractor connects tractor owners to farmers through an Internet-of-Things (IoT)-enabled digital solution that bridges the gap between manual and mechanised farming. The service enables farmers to request affordable tractor services, while providing enhanced security to tractor owners through remote asset tracking and virtual monitoring. Through technology, the company is creating sustainable business opportunities for compact tractor owners, while ensuring smallholder farmers have affordable and convenient access to...

27 February 2019. Brussels. ” Sustainable agriculture: where are we on SDGs implementation ?” The Briefing was co-organised by  CTA , the  European Commission  (DG Devco), the  ACP Secretariat  and  CONCORD . Background Note Programme Resources Click Here for Webstream The Brussels Briefing 54 discussed the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, examining the status of implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and the progress made with respect to Zero Hunger (SDG 2) on agriculture, food security and nutrition in ACP countries. In particular, the Briefing featured an exchange of views and experiences on: the policies, practices and partnerships that have been successful in driving the goal of SDG 2, with a focus on landmark developments at local, national and regional levels; the achievements and best experiences in developing partnerships for SDG 2 implementation; the next steps on SDG 2 delivery. Panel 1: SDGs: Frameworks, Partne...

18 February 2019 . Brussels. Recent trends and Outlook in African Agricultural Trade Trade is an important avenue through which countries transform their economies and raise standards of living. For African countries, trade in agricultural products offers great potential to boost incomes for farmers, processors and other agricultural value chain actors. Leonard Mizzi , Head of Unit DEVCO C1- Rural Development, Food Security, Nutrition Chair Isolina Boto  Manager, CTA Brussels Office Ousmane Badiane  Director for Africa, IFPRI "Increasing the ability of African countries to participate in regional and global trade helps to improve well-being of consumers, raise incomes of farmers, build resilience of food markets, and ultimately it also helps to boost economic growth and reduce poverty," "Increasing the ability of African countries to participate in regional and global trade helps to improve well-being of consumers, raise incomes of farmers, build resilience of food m...

4 - 5 February 2019 . Nairobi. Workshop on Sustainable Management of Integrated Open Weather Data and Agricultural Research Data to Create Impact for Smallholder Farmers . In Kenya, different data producers, intermediaries and data consumers require capacity building and skills to be able to manage and use open data in agriculture and nutrition effectively. On the other hand, a number of ICT experts, agricultural researchers, practitioners and policy-makers have turned their focus on the need obtain added value from data products and services for smallholder farmers specifically using information and communication technologies. However, limited technical capacities of data producers, data managers and data consumers has hindered effective generation and utilisation of data products and services. The main objective of the training workshop was to strengthen the technical capacities of data value chain actors and intermediaries on key areas such as: open data principles effective utilisa...

23 January 2019 . Wageningen, the Netherlands.  Fifth Community of Practice (CoP) Youth meet-up . Judith Francis from CTA, the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Co-operation, and Jennie van der Mheen from Wageningen University & Research (WUR) presented a comprehensive framework and brief on “ supply and demand factors impacting youth employment & entrepreneurship ” The purpose of this model and the brief is to propose a systems approach and to serve as a guide for those who are deciding where to best intervene or for their investments to have greatest impact on youth employment and entrepreneurship in agrofood systems . The participants of the CoP meet-up were invited to reflect on the draft framework.  Does it capture the multiple issues and address the most effective ways to overcome the challenge of youth under- and unemployment?  Does it expand youth entrepreneurial opportunities?  Can it help guide meaningful interventions?  Which sugges...

30th January to 1st February 2019. FARA Secretariat, Accra, Ghana The Long-term Europe-Africa Partnership for Food and Nutrition Security, and Sustainable Agriculture (LEAP4FNSSA) is a Coordination Support Action (CSA) funded by the Directorate General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD) of the European Commission (EC), under Horizon 2020. It brings together 35 institutions from Africa and Europe which are ready to engage in collaborative research and innovation on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture (FNSSA) roadmap signed in 2016, between the African Union and the European Union. From Left: Dr. Mawoko Philippe (Africa Union Commission), Agnieszka Romanowicz (European Commission), Madam Patricia Apiagyei (Hon. Deputy Minister of Environment, Science, Technology & Innovation of Ghana), Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo (Executive Director, FARA) and Philippe Petithuguenin (CIRAD) A presentation to the  Honourable Deputy Minister The official Kick Off Meeting, which is t...

11 December 2018.  The e-Agriculture and The Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA)'s Unmanned Aerial Systems Community (UAV4Ag) held this webinar "Drones for Agriculture: potentials and challenges on the African continent". There is a general consensus that smallholder farming needs to become more productive, sustainable and profitable. Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) – or drone-based systems – services can help make this possible by bringing some of the tools of precision agriculture to producers, which include large and medium-scale holdings and associations of small-scale farmers growing the same crop in contiguous areas.  UAS can help increase the returns to farmers and create knowledge-intensive new employment opportunities in rural areas, offering educated youth an alternative to migrating to the cities. UAS services are increasingly adopted in developed countries. On the other hand, the deployment of the technology in Africa faces a number ...

Tom Arnold: Task Force Rural Africa (TFRA) will focus on 4 key policy areas, 1. Territorial approaches: rural spaces & how they interact w cities 2. Agricultural Transformation 3. Investing in a sustainable African food industry 4. Natural Resource management. 20 November 2018.  The Brussels Development Briefing n. 53 on The next generation of farmers: successes and new opportunities. To generate growth in rural areas and new employments and investments in farms, new kills and practices will be needed for for new generations of farmers and agro-processors. To reach this, a number of changes need to happen: farming needs to be competitive to retain or access to new markets, increase its productivity, engage in diversification processes and use technology and innovation to be more efficient in use of resources. We see societal expectations regarding food, in particular concerning food safety, food quality, food waste, environmental and animal welfare standards which farmers ...