Supported by the African Agri Council, and hosted by Hypenica, the inaugural Agri Logistics and e-Agri East Africa Summits 2017 are taking place in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 February to 1 March 2017.
A delegation of international ICT, logistics and transport infrastructure professionals, together with a line-up of East African agricultural thought leaders, will address the challenges faced by the agricultural sector in the region and to look at ways to unlock the region’s potential.
Growing trade volumes in the East African region provides both opportunities and challenges for the agriculture sector. Perishable products often suffer from supply-chain delays and post-harvest losses in remote areas, mostly due to poor infrastructure, lack of appropriate transport systems and a lack of refrigerated transport and storage.
Furthermore, the innovative utilisation of African-appropriate technologies and solutions for improved production and increased productivity is often neglected.
According to Nico Loretz, Programme Manager, the Agri Logistics and e-Agri East Africa Summits 2017, “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 Ltd will look at 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 highlights include an in-depth look at first mile transport and development, transport hubs for agriculture transhipment, cold chain logistics and supply chain 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.
Highlights of the 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.
The event will conclude with 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.
