Women selling vegetables at Jubilee market in Kisumu
Agriculture and food-related activities are important in Nyalenda and Obunga informal settlements in Kisumu county. Almost a third of the population is involved in farming activities. The crops mainly grown are those providing constant income, such as kales and maize. The two most important factors that shape food consumption in the settlements is availability and affordability. Lifestyle, culture and introduced customs play a role as well. The most common plate in Kisumu is made of ugali and vegetables, mostly kales. Meat is rarely consumed, but due to their preferences and culture, people eat fish.
The East Africa digital farmer conference and exhibition kicks off at KALRO grounds Nairobi.
The first edition of the East Africa digital farmers conference and exhibition 2018 has officially kicked off at KALRO grounds, Loresho, Nairobi. The three-day event goes under the theme ‘enabling agribusiness and food security through ICT’. The event will cover several topics namely enhancing crop and livestock productivity, market linkages through ICT, improved awareness, and information dissemination, strengthened policy and regulation, research development and capacity building efforts for enhanced application of ICT in agriculture.
The regional conference seeks to bring together end users, service providers, disseminators, regulators, policy formulators, and technology developers of ICT solutions in the agricultural sector to foster growth in agribusiness and food security for the region.
Speaking at the opening of the conference and exhibition, Agriculture Research PS. Hon. Prof. Hamadi Boga says, “With this kind of conference we are sure that our farmers shall not perish for lack of knowledge. We have invested in heavy technology and are open to different innovations in agriculture.”
ICT plays a key role in improving smallholder farmers in agricultural productivity. Also, through improved ICT processes, e-agriculture can be used to boost agricultural and rural development. E –agriculture is one of the action lines identified in the Declaration and Plan of Action of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS), as a key driver in ensuring systematic use of ICT in agriculture in order to provide access to a comprehensive, up to date and detailed information, particularly in rural areas. (Ref: http://www.itu.int/net/wsis/index.html, 2017)
Smallholder farmers are faced with lots of challenges as they try to reach their produce to the market. These challenges comprise of access to markets, inadequate infrastructure, low capacity to innovate, adverse effects of climate change, plant pests and diseases, poor seed, informal marketing structures and poor market access, weak multisector linkages, weak policy, failed extension services, and lack of timely dissemination avenues for agricultural information, among others. (Source, East Africa digital farmer)
These issues can be addressed through the use of ICT to enable smallholder farmers to get maximum optimum results from their produce
Lastly, the World Bank has piloted big data to enable smallholder farmers to get optimum results from their products and avoid losses.
The conference is hosted by the Smart Farmer Magazine in partnership with KALRO.
Innovation capacity presupposes capacity to harness science, technology, and innovation (STI) for agricultural commercialization. Agricultural commercialization requires an enabling policy environment on STI issues such as the impact of climate change, nutrition, improved seed and inputs, emerging technologies, infrastructure, research and extension, and financing. These issues are consistent with the Science, Technology, and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA) 2024 (African Union Commission undated). This paper uses three STI revolution storylines (case studies on rice, information and communications technology (ICT) and cocoa) to highlight the enabling factors that make STI a vehicle for agricultural commercialization.
The Center for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE) was recently selected to offer technical advisory services to evaluate the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) cohort 23 participants in pushing forward the apprenticeship policy framework on youth employment creation in agriculture and agro processing. This collaboration developed as part of the project that CABE is hosting on Utafiti Sera project in conjunction with Partnership for African Social and Governance Research (PASGR) on youth employment creation in agriculture and agro processing.
CABE Executive Director, Dr. Hannigton Odame gives his opening remarks during the county policy dialogue forum in Trans Nzoia County
The Centre for African Bio-Entrepreneurship (CABE) in collaboration with Partnership for Social and Governance Research (PASGR) will hold a one day county forum on ‘Youth Employment Creation in Agriculture and Agro-Processing in Kenya and the role of Utafiti Sera (research-policy community)’ on March 1, 2018 at Westside Hotel in Kitale, Trans Nzoia County. The forum aims to share lessons and form consensus on policy actions to enable counties serve as centers of development in supporting the relevant youth agenda.
