ICT, logistics in agriculture to be in focus at East Africa Agri Summit

Jan 13, 2017: The first edition of the ‘Agri Logistics and e-Agri East Africa Summit 2017’, in association with African Agri Council, and hosted by Hypenica will take place from 28 February to 1 March 2017.

The delegation includes international ICT, logistics and transport infrastructure professionals apart from East African agricultural thought leaders, who will address the challenges faced by the agricultural sector in the region and to look at ways to unlock the region’s potential.

Increasing trade volumes in the East African region throws open opportunities as well as challenges for the agriculture sector. Perishable products often face supply chain delays and post-harvest losses in remote areas. This mostly happens due to poor infrastructure, lack of appropriate transport systems and a lack of refrigerated transport and storage.

In addition, utilisation of African-appropriate technologies and solutions for improved production and increased productivity is not given much importance.

Nico Loretz, Programme Manager, the Agri Logistics and e-Agri East Africa Summit 2017 said, “It is against this background that the African Agri Council and Hypenica are hosting these two co-located events: It is the only platform of its kind in Africa that brings together proven innovative e-agriculture solutions for preventing post-harvest losses, improved production and increased productivity to improve the supply chain process from farmer to market and to enhance food security in the region.”

The joint keynote plenary session, chaired by Ali Mufuruki, Chairman, TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) and CEO of Infotech Investment Group will highlight a regulatory framework, opportunities in trade agreements, investment needs and new innovations in technology to create an enabling environment for agricultural development in East Africa.

Agri Logistics East Africa Summit 2017 aims to cover topics on first mile transport and development, transport hubs for agriculture transhipment, cold chain logistics innovations and quality certification and customs management for exports.

Programme participants include Silvester Kasuku, Director General/Chief Executive Officer, LAPSSET Corridor Development Authority and Apollo Kashanku, Senior Transport Economist, Uganda’s Ministry of Works and Transport, and Jane Ngige, Chief Executive Officer, Kenya Flower Council.

eAgri East Africa Summit 2017 will include a look at the value of holistic ICT for market linkages, translating agri-information technologies to the East African context, decision support systems (DSS) and apps to support evidence-based decisions across agricultural value chains.

Programme participants include Stewart Collis, Chief Technology Officer, AWhere, John Waibochi, Chief Executive Officer, Virtual City, and Elias Chandi, International Business Advisor, Esoko.

There will be a joint closing session panel discussion on innovative ICT use in agro logistics. Warehouse receipts and exchange systems, funding mechanisms driving farmer to market, technologies for enhanced farming and new projects in the pipeline are just some of the discussion topics in this interactive panel.

Photo Credit: http://4.bp.blogspot.com/