Let’s travel through West Africa Workshop again: speakers and idea carriers bios and presentations in more detail
Welcome and Scene Setting Session
Rose Omari
Dr Rose Omari is a Senior Research Scientist at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute, Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR- STEPRI), Ghana. She is a multidisciplinary research scientist with expertise in the design, implementation and management of policy and regulatory studies in agriculture, food safety, nutrition, health, and science, technology and innovation.
She has recently conducted and published a study that identified options for strengthening the enabling environment for providers of agricultural ICT solutions to develop and commercialise their applications. She has participated in several policy formulation processes and has recently led the development of the National Policy for Aflatoxin Control. Rose has a BSc degree in Biochemistry and Food Science and MPhil degree in Food Science from the University of Ghana. She has a PhD degree in Rural Sociology (Food Studies) from Wageningen University and Research Centre.
Wilhelmina Quaye
Dr. Wilhelmina Quaye is Director of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research/ Science and Technology Policy Research Institute in Ghana. She obtained her PhD in Rural Sociology from Wageningen University in the Netherlands. She had her MPhil (2002) and BSc (1993) in Agricultural Economics from the University of Ghana, Legon.
She also has a certificate in Gender Mainstreaming from Institute of Capacity Development in South Africa and a certificate in Monitoring and Evaluation of Development Projects from Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA). She is an African Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) fellow. She has consulted for UNDP Ghana Cocoa Platform, African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (AFAAS) on Gender and Tradeline Consult on Household Dietary Diversity Scores. Her areas of specialization include Socio-economic related research, Monitoring & Evaluation and Policy & Gender Issues. She has more than 20 years working experience both in research and practice.
Maurizio Raeli
Maurizio Raeli, jurist, serving since 2017 as Director of CIHEAM Bari – Centre International de Hautes Etudes Agronomiques Méditerranéennes – the Italian seat of the intergovernmental post-graduate advanced centre for applied scientific research and international cooperation.
Since 1978, he has worked in glamorous institutional settings and has held numerous offices, namely: Coordinator of SINAB (Sistema Informativo Nazionale dell’Agricoltura Biologica), Member of the Governing Board of ISA (Istituto Sviluppo Agroalimentare S.p.a.), a financial holding company of the Italian Ministry of Agricultural, Food and Forestry Policy (MIPAF) currently absorbed by ISMEA, Member of the Teachers’ Board for the Doctorate in “Environment, Resources, and Sustainable Development” of Parthenope University of Naples, Executive at the “Unione Regionale Bonifiche delle Irrigazioni e dei Miglioramenti Fondiari per la Puglia”
Philippe Petithuguenin
Philippe Petithuguenin is Research and Strategy Deputy Director at Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement (CIRAD), France. As farming system agronomist by training, he worked in the field of Agricultural Research for Development, at project, programme and policy level, for 30 years, including 20 years of posting outside France (Africa and Latin America).
He also assumed institutional tasks, representing INRA and CIRAD in Brazil for 5 years. He worked for the European Commission for 3 years advising EC-DG RTD on activities of international cooperation related to Agricultural Research with developing countries and emerging economies and with international organizations like the Consultative Group of International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). He currently is the co-chair of the SCAR Working Group ARCH (Agricultural Research against global Challenges) and LEAP4FNSSA Coordinator.
Panel 1: Policies and programmes on Food and Nutrition Security and Sustainable Agriculture – Building West Africa Chapter and AU-EU Funders Alliance
Henning Knipschild
(Moderator)
Henning Knipschild, biologist by training with expertise on funding, research management, international policies, knowledge management and development cooperation. He works in the Federal Office for Agriculture and Food / Bundesanstalt für Landwirtschaft und Ernährung (BLE), an institution directly subordinated to the German Government and empowered to conduct business on behalf of the German Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).
Henning Knipschild has been working in international cooperation most of his work life. He worked as a Project Manager in Knowledge Management within the field of food security and currently works as a funding manager for international agricultural research programmes, as well as in digital transformation. He has been working in different European-African networks/projects, such as ERA-ARD, LEAP-Agri, LEAP4FNSSA and also in development cooperation in Africa, Latin America and Asia. Email: Henning.Knipschild@ble.de
Jackie Kado
Jackie Kado is the Executive Director of the Network of African Science Academies (NASAC) secretariat based in Nairobi, Kenya. NASAC is a consortium of science twenty-eight science academies in Africa, with a membership drawn from all spheres of science. Her role ensures that NASAC activities are implemented in a coordinated and timely manner, and that secretariat functions are executed optimally.
She has served science academies in various capacities since the establishment of NASAC in 2001. Mrs. Kado holds a Masters of Arts Degree in Project Planning and Management from the University of Nairobi (UoN) and a Bachelors Degree in Education in Mathematics and Commerce, also from UoN. Her specialization is project management for policy in science and she has close to twenty years of experience working with scientists in Africa.
She is an astute believer in home-grown solutions that enable Africa overcome its challenges and realize its potential. Besides her role at NASAC, she also provides input to a number of African initiatives and serves on the several national and international Committees. Email: jkado@nasaconline.org
Bernard Antonin Mallet
Bernard Antonin Mallet has been involved from 1975 as a French scientist and expert in tropical forestry and agroforestry research programs, in close partnership with African, Asian and Latin American research teams. He was appointed on 2005 Director of the Cirad “Forest Department”, then the “Environment and societies” Department.
He is coauthor in more than 100 scientific publications. He is working from 2016 for ANR (French National Research Agency) with a focus on Europe-Africa FNSSA (Food and nutrition security and sustainable agriculture) partnership and projects, including “LEAP-Agri” and “FOSC” Eranetcofund projects, and LEAP4NSSA.
Stefan A. Haffner
Stefan A. Haffner is a Senior Scientific Officer in the Department for European and International Cooperation in the Project Management Agency of the German Aerospace Center (DLR-PT) serving the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). He worked in several international institutions and multilateral projects towards the collaboration of Africa and Europe in the field of STI. At the moment he is involved in the EU-funded ERA-Net Cofund LEAP-Agri, the CSA LEAP4FNSSA and the RIA LEAP-RE.
Based on his experiences with multilateral funding and collaboration processes, he is focussing currently on the development of a long-term strategic AU-EU Programme and Innovation Management Cycle (PIMC) model in STI. The PIMC Model facilitates the inclusive development of research and innovation agendas, and intends to improve coordination and network building, and the development of communication and learning mechanism in multilateral contexts. He graduated with a master in Geography and Sociology. Email: stefan.haffner@dlr.de
Irene Annor-Frempong
Dr. Irene Annor-Frempong currently serves as Advisor on Research and Innovation. She was the Director for Research and Innovation at ‘The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa’ (FARA) until August 2020. In FARA, she led the development and coordination of continental-wide programs on ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Agricultural Research and Development for Africa’ (SCARDA), ‘Universities, Business Research in Agricultural Innovation’ (UniBRAIN), ‘Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation’ (TAAT), EU DeSIRA- FARA CAADP XP4 project, among others.
Prior to FARA, she worked at universities and research institutes including University of Cape Coast, FAP Research Station, Rekenholtz- Zurich in Switzerland and at IVO, Zeist in the Netherlands. She is currently a Commissioner of the CGIAR Commission on Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (CoSAI) and has served on a number of Boards and Steering Committees of continent-wide and global initiatives including the World Bank Africa Centres of Excellence (ACE) program, the Technical Committee of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and the Consultative Advisory Group on Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET). Dr. Annor-Frempong obtained her PhD from the Veterinary School, University of Bristol, UK, MSc in Animal Production Science- Wageningen University and Research, the Netherlands, BSc. (Hons) Agriculture and a Dip. Education – University of Cape Coast, Ghana.
Abdou Tenkouano
Dr. Abdou Tenkouano is Executive Director of CORAF, the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultural Research and Development, based in Dakar, Senegal. A native of Burkina Faso, he obtained an Ingenieur du Developpement Rural (Option Agronomie) degree from the University of Ouagadougou (1985), an M.Sc in Plant Breeding from Texas A&M University (1990) and a PhD in Genetics also from Texas A&M University (1993).
He has worked across sub-Saharan Africa with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT, Mali), the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA, Nigeria, Cameroon and Ghana) and The World Vegetable Center (WorldVeg, Tanzania and Mali). Dr. Tenkouano also served as a member of the research for development council at IITA, and as deputy chair of the institutional research and development committee and a member of the institutional management committee at WorldVeg. He has been a guest lecturer at the University of Ouagadougou and the University of Ghana, Legon.
Ernest Aubee
Ernest Aubee is a citizen of the Gambia and is currently the Head of Agriculture Division at the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Commission in Abuja, Nigeria.
He has worked in senior management positions in international organizations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), International Labour Organization (ILO), Action Aid and Catholic Relief Services. He has vast experience in Agriculture, Rural Development, Poverty Alleviation and Sustainable Development at the national, regional and continental levels.
Sylvie Lewicki
By training, Sylvie Lewicki is a plant physiologist related to environmental constraints and plant breeding and has a PhD in Agricultural sciences. After a postdoctoral fellowship at Cimmyt (Centro International de Mejoramiento de Mais y Trigo, Mexico), she has been in charge at Cirad (French Agricultural Research Centre for International Development) of the cotton genetic resources management and valorization located first in Chad (1996), and in later in Costa Rica (1998). From 2000 to 2005, she has been leader of a project funded by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, concerning the strengthening of cotton research in Benin.
She has also developed competencies on classic and participatory cotton breeding. She was then Regional Director of Cirad in Central Africa based in Cameroon (2005-2008). His work was essentially the development and the implementation of scientific strategies by strengthening partnerships. Back in France in 2009, she was Deputy Director of UMR AGAP (Genetic Improvement and Adaptation of Mediterranean and Tropical Plant), Cirad Research Unit, in the BIOlogical Systems department. In this unit, she was particularly in charge of the geo-partnership strategy, and more specifically, setting-up and animation of partnership platforms in partnership for research and training. She was also leader of a work package concerning strategic activities towards joint programming in an ERA-net project named ERA – ARD II (Agricultural Research for Development). Since September 2016, she is regional director of Cirad and representative of INRA and Agreenium for West Africa – Dry Zone. Based in Dakar, she covers all of the following countries: Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Senegal, Chad.
Hamidou Hamadou Tamboura
Dr. Hamidou Hamadou Tamboura (DVM, PhD) is a senior animal sciences scientist at the Scientific and technology research centre (CNRST), Burkina Faso, where he joined in 1985, serving at the Ministry of Higher education, scientific research and Innovation.
More of his 30 years of scientific career was spent in research among: i) local breeds of ruminants, especially in Sahelian of West Africa and ii) indigenous knowledge in animal healing systems and pharmacology of veterinary medicinal plants in West Africa. He coordinated several national and international projects (CORAF/WECARD, INCO-DEV, PROCORDEL-EU, SANREM/CRSP-USAID, FSP/France) from 1994 to 2007. He actively participated in institutional building of the NARS and runned several collaborative projects involving EU/AU like ERAfrica. More recently, he was involved in LEAP-Agri, a joint EU-AU project where he is co-leading a process towards the establishment of an EU-Africa portal on FNSSA (co-leader of WP6 with BLE-Germany). He also led (2007 – 2011) an AFDB funded project aiming to develop livestock production in northern Sahelian Burkina Faso. Since 2012 until now, he is a senior member of CAMES scientific board, the international board in charge of promotion and advancement of all African francophone universities and research staff. He is nowadays the Director general of Research and Innovation for Development Funding Agency of Burkina Faso (FONRID).
Krishan Bheenick
Krishan Bheenick is from Mauritius. He has worked as a University Lecturer, as a Research Programme coordinator in Mauritius before he spent 5 years at the SADC Secretariat coordinating an Agricultural Research and Training programme from 2006-2010, where he helped develop the SADC Agricultural Research Information System which has since evolved into the Southern African Agricultural Information and Knowledge System run by CCARDESA.
He spent 6 years at the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) in the Netherlands, where he developed the Centre’s portfolio of interventions around Knowledge Management in Agriculture. He has interacted with stakeholders in Africa, the Pacific region and the Caribbean. More recently, he joined FARA as the Lead Specialist on Capacity Development, and as Coordinator of the Capacity Development and Technology Outreach compact of a pan-African programme of the African Development Bank called ‘Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT). Krishan has collaborated with several of the sub-regional and regional organisations in Africa, dealing with the Research, Extension and Farmer organisations.
Moumini Savadogo
Dr. Moumini Savadogo, the WASCAL Executive Director is a Scientist / Project & Programme Manager in Environment and Sustainable Development in Africa, including 15 years at senior management levels. He holds a PhD in Animal Sciences/Sustainable Land Use in crop/livestock systems, Wageningen University, the Netherlands. He also has expertise in Programme development and management (Fundraising, Implementation, Procurement, Monitoring and Evaluation, Budget Management, Human Resources Management and Reporting) and negotiations.
Until his appointment as WASCAL Executive Director, Dr. Savadogo worked as Head of Burkina Faso office of the International Union for Conservation of Nature and natural resources (IUCN) West and Central Africa Programme (PACO). He also worked as Scientist for the national Institute of Environment and Agricultural Research (INERA), the Joint Sahelian Progamme of Wageningen University and the University of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, the Regional coordinator of the W-Arly-Pendjari Programme development (Benin, Burkina Faso, Niger), as well as consultant for several international and national organizations. He has an excellent knowledge of national and regional policies and strategies on energy, agriculture, ecosystem management, poverty reduction and sustainable development, climate change as well as international agreements on environment. Dr. Savadogo possesses rich working experience with more than 25 years in several West African countries and very familiar with multicultural and multidisciplinary teamwork.
Panel 2: Innovation and digitalisation in agriculture: Paving the way for entrepreneurs, AgriTech and FoodTech start-ups
Dorra Fiani
(Moderator)
Dorra Fiani is an international multi-disciplinary expert, specializing in knowledge management and dissemination, B2B market linkages, SMEs finance and value chains strategies in the agribusiness sector, with over 30 years’ experience in managing her own company in Egypt, as well as foreign subsidiaries. Investing her entrepreneurship skills and expertise in information systems design and management.
Mrs. Fiani founded with a group of leading experts, an NGO Knowledge Economy Foundation, to establish and manage the “Bashaier Network”, the 1st agribusiness digital extension services and marketplace platform in Egypt, to cover a range of value chains of which horticulture, fish and dairy, and recently the first agribusiness entrepreneurship digital platform and virtual incubator. She is President of the Knowledge Economy Foundation, Egypt Bashaier Agribusiness Digital Networks.
Benjamin Gyan-Kesse
(Expert)
Benjamin Gyan-Kesse, Program Director, Kosmos Innovation Center in Ghana has 22 years of experience providing support to farmers and developing agribusiness value chain programs. Currently, Mr Kesse is an AgriTech Specialist and the Program Director for the Kosmos Innovation Center, nurtured over 500 entrepreneurs, 18 startups and incubated 14 startups.
His past works include building capacity of over 58,000 cocoa farmers and improving livelihood of over 70,000 farmers in Ghana’s savannah regions through ICT4Ag. He also worked with Technoserve Ghana as a business Advisor, Cocoa Abrabopa Association as Training and Development Manager and Esoko as Business Development Manager. Ben is a modern farmer into fruit cultivation and value addition.
Loise W Wachira
(Idea-carrier)
Use of social media platforms to create content along the agriculture value chain, Utmost Precision Limited, Kenya
E-mail: Loise.wachira@utmostprecision.co.ke
Presentation [.pdf | 648 KB] |
More info on Utmost Precision
Olusegun Adegun
(Idea-carrier)
Improving the quality of crop yield in rural farming by agricultural extension service to local farmers, Rural Farmers Hub, Nigeria.
E-mail: segun@ruralfarmershub.com
Presentation [.pdf | 2,4 MB] |
More info on Rural Famers Hub
Mohammed Aourach
(Idea-carrier)
Mohammed Aourach is Ph.D. student at University Abdelmalek Essaadi passionate by Research and Entrepreneurship, working full time on the development of new Biofungicide. In that role his major accomplishments is the publication in Elsevier journal Compte rendu Biologies, the participation in several conferences and the obtention of several prizes. The prize of the best Poster at 3rd Green and Sustainable Chemistry 2018 in Berlin and at 3rd International Congress of Plant diversity 2015 in Marrakech and The Prize of the Best Ph.D. student of the year 2017 at University Abdelmalek Essaadi.
The project BeP-Biopesticide replace Pesticide was among the top 10 finalists in the 1ST EUROMEDHACKATHON IN AGRIFOOD CHAIN 2016 in Amman (Jordan) and a finalist in the 4th Green & Sustainable Chemistry Challenge for the Award ISC3 Entrepreneurial spirit in sustainable chemistry 2019 in Dresden (Germany). With research, I’m the head of the Communication Committee of the club of student researchers of the Faculty of Sciences and Techniques of Tangier and council member of the club of University Abdelmalek Essaadi Tetouan. BeP team is looking for investors that have a past venture and investment portfolio in the biopesticide sector. BeP is an innovative project that fits sustainability and green food solution.
E-mail: maourach@uae.ac.ma
Presentation [.pdf | 794 KB] | More info on BeP-Biopesticide replace Pesticide
Isaac Sesi
(Idea-carrier)
Isaac Sesi is an entrepreneur, engineer and innovator passionate about leveraging technology to solve some of Africa’s most pressing problems working for GrainMate, Sesi technologies, Ghana. He holds a BSC in Electrical and Electronic Engineering and currently leads the team at Sesi Technologies where they are developing affordable technologies to safeguard global good systems. Isaac is a 2019 MIT Technology Review Innovator Under 35 along with the founders of Google and PayPal, and has been named one of 50 most influential young Ghanaians.
As an international speaker, he has spoken at many top universities including MIT and Yale. His audiences have also included top US government and United Nations officials.He is also a co-founder of Nsesa Foundation, a STEM non-profit whose programmes have directly trained more than 3000 young people from 37 countries across Africa.
E-mail: isaac@sesitechnologies.com
Presentation [.pdf | 595 KB] | More info on Sesi technologies
Michael Ogundare
(Idea-carrier)
Integrating farmers into the agri-food systems by analysing performance and creditworthiness. Crop2Cash Ltd, Nigeria
E-mail: michael@crop2cash.com.ng
Presentation [.pdf | 641 KB] | More info on Crop2Cash
Stephen Edward Moroe
(Idea-carrier)
Dr. Stephen Edward Moroe is a co-founder of Integrable farms, Ghana and a lecturer at the Department of Mathematics, University of Cape Coast, Ghana. His research involves Mathematical Modelling of diseases, Aritificial Intelligence (AI) and Computational Science.
He lived and worked in Germany, Austria, The Netherlands and Switzerland from 2008 – 2018. He relocated to Ghana in 2018 and started Integrable farms in 2019.
E-mail: stephen.moore@mooreconsults.com
Presentation [.pdf | 835 KB] | More info on Integrable Farms
Edmond Ng’walago
(Idea-carrier)
Increasing yields and income by use of technology to access biopesticide and biofertilizer. NG’WALA INVENTIONS, Tanzania.
E-mail: info@ngwalainventions.co.tz
Presentation [.pdf | 997 KB] | More info on ng’wala Inventions
Katharina Kuss
(Rapporteur)
Katharina Kuss has been working as a research & development manager for 15 years and has a vast experience in bi-regional science technology and innovation (STI) cooperation, particularly in relation to global societal challenges such as health.
Her experience in bi-regional research cooperation results from her coordination and management of several EU funded projects, particularly as advisor for research and innovation cooperation between Europe and Africa. She has participated in several coordination and support actions explicitly aiming on strengthening research and innovation cooperation and partnerships of African and European scientists. Katharina is the founder of GO AFRICA. She holds a Master degree in African Studies from the Humboldt University in Berlin and has professional working experience in Germany, Tanzania and Spain.
E-mail: katharina.kuss@go-africa.eu
Dominic Schofield
(Expert)
Dominic Schofield is CEO of Peregrine Impact Associates and Senior Advisor for Food Convergence Innovation (FCI) at the McGill University Centre for the Convergence of Health and Economics (MCCHE), Canada. With over twenty-five years working in the field of international development, Dominic has served in leadership positions with the private and not-for-profit sectors, and the United Nations; with assignments in Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and South and Southeast Asia.
Throughout his career, Dominic has sought to bring good development practice together with good business practice. Dominic currently provides strategy and management consulting services to philanthropies, UN and mission-driven businesses to advance economic development that supports human and planetary health. Most recently, this includes serving as Managing Director of MotherFood International, a social enterprise that supports business opportunities for women to create nutritional food supplements with locally sourced ingredients, and as Senior Advisor to One Acre Fund, a social enterprise working with nearly 1 million smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa to eradicate hunger and poverty. Dominic is also co-Founder and Director of the Future Food Platform, which supports start-ups and large companies alike to scale-up their innovations at the convergence of health, environment and economic development along key future of food trendlines.
Andrea Capobianco Dondona
(Idea-carrier)
Andrea Capobianco Dondona is a veterinarian as well as the CEO and co- founder of Farm4Trade. As a veterinary epidemiologist, he has been working for over 15 years in the veterinary research & development field, especially in Africa and in numerous developing and emerging countries.
Andrea has extensive experience in infectious diseases at the wildlife/livestock/human interface, animal production and veterinary information systems. His experience results from the national and international projects he was directly managing or involved in dealing with multiple stakeholders, including governments, farmers, non-profit and international organizations, such as OIE, World Bank and FAO.
Over the years, Andrea has coordinated regional projects and been responsible for training farmers, veterinarians and other stakeholders. All this experience resulted in co-founding Farm4Trade in September 2016 with the aim to empower farmers, while guaranteeing better livestock production and an easier access to the market, thanks to the technology and access to knowledge and data. Andrea and Farm4Trade’s goal is to guarantee food security while improving livestock production and reducing infectious disease burden.
E-mail: andrea@farm4trade.com
Presentation [.pdf | 1 MB] | More info on Farm4Trade
Mori Gouroubera
(Idea-carrier)
Mori Gouroubera, is an agronomist with over 6 years’ experience in development field, drafting and implementing sustainable agriculture programs. He worked for two different NGOs in building up farmers’ capacity on farm business management.
After his Master degree research at University of Parakou, Benin that focused on ICT usage in agricultural extension services, he joined the Laboratory of Research on Innovation for Agricultural Development (LRIDA) and work in the same field. He is now the founder of ISADA-Consulting cabinet that promotes agricultural videos to inform farmers about good practices. He won in 2019 the Young Entrepreneur Challenge Fund in digital extension launched by Access Agriculture an international non-profit organization and has been working in partnership with them in developing his idea.
E-mail: gourouwm@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 564 KB] | More info on ISADA-Consulting
Babatunde Olarewaju
(Idea-carrier)
Babatunde Olarewaju is a Food safety expert with B.Agric and Master of Philosophy (M.Phil) Degrees in Agricultural Extension and Rural Sociology from Nigeria. His interests are in Food Safety Management System, Quality Management System, training, youth capacity building and development, gender equity, and community driven development projects and consulting.
He has worked in different organizations such as Harambe Nigeria, International Development Research centre (IDRC), AgroNigeria, and Welcome2Africa International. He is currently the Lead Strategist of FutuX Agri-consult Limited, a private extension company working with smallholder farmers in West Africa.Babatunde has also provided independent consultancy services to several organizations among which were CeresNexus LLC (America), Sustainable Environment and Fisheries Foundation (SEFFA) (Nigeria), STREAM Insight (Nigeria), M.E. Solutions, Ope Farms, Russel farms, AlaafiAgro Farm, Royal Exchange General Insurance, FOSI Farm, Selig Rain Farm, amongst others. Also, he had worked under different projects such as MicroVeg project (IDRC, Canada), ACCG-NG (Bill and Melinda Gate Foundation), NAIC Project amongst others. He has been a licensed GlobalG.A.P Farm Assurer, Quality Management System (QMS), and GlobalG.A.P Risk Assessment on Social Practice (GRASP). and currently, he is a PECB Lead Auditor for ISO22000 and member of Forest Stewardship Council.
E-mail: O.babatunde@futuxconsult.com
Presentation [.pdf | 483 KB] | More info on Futux Agri-consult
Kalvince Otieno
(Idea-carrier)
Kalvince Otieno holds a Bachelor’s degree in Food Nutrition and Dietetics from Kenyatta University. He is a Nelson Mandela Humanitarian Award winner, Pan-African youth leader and founder of FSPN-Africa: a leading Regional Youth organization which models and advances women and youth- led approaches towards sustainable development, zero hunger, and good nutrition as economic viability practices by utilizing innovative research, policy, technology & innovation and advocacy actions.
He studied Civic Leadership and Entrepreneurship at Young African Leadership Initiative (YALI) and serves at entrepreneurship facilitator and Coordinator for STEP at Kenyatta University and Mount Kenya University supported by the German Academic Exchange Service. Kalvince previously served as global youth representative to the UN High Level Panel of Eminent Persons on Post 2015. His interests lie in improving food and Nutrition Security, inclusive economic development, innovative, social entrepreneurship, deliberative democracy. Previously served in different companies and organizations INCLUDING, IAAF World Athletics, Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital, and Eco finder Kenya, Human Rights Commission Kenya and Soft touch Technologies in different positions.
E-mail: kalvinceotieno@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 699 KB] | More info on FSPN-Africa
Folake Aina
(Idea-carrier)
Folake Aina is Co-founder of “Know Your Farm Hands”, Nigeria’s premier farm workers management tool. She is the Managing Director of VD&S Group of companies comprising of VD&S Farms, VD&S Feeds Integrated and VD&S Farmers centre and an Executive of the Poultry Association Of Nigeria (PAN), Epe Zone. Folake started her career in 1992 with Burke and Co, a renowned international legal firm in Lagos and subsequently joined the banking industry.
She worked with Ecobank Nigeria for 6 years before relocating to Canada where she worked with The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) in Ontario for 4 years. Upon her return to Nigeria in 2004 she rejoined the Ecobank. After retiring from the banking industry she was involved in establishing an agro-venture in 2012. Since then she has expanded her scope into livestock production and crop farming, integrated feed milling, agrovet, agrochemicals, agriculture consultancy services, training and mentorship, marketing and farm technology innovation.
E-mail: support@knowyourfarmhands.ng
Presentation [.pdf | 604 KB] | More info on Know Your Farm Hands
Oyewale Abioye
(Idea-carrier)
Oyewale Abioye is a co-founder of Tech4Ag LTD, a start-up that developed mDairy; an integrated digital platforms serving as a one stop shop for dairy farmers in Nigeria. He has over 10 years’ experience working on development programs that focus on improving the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in Sub-Sahara Africa. He leads an enterprise that processes cassava into flakes and runs a plantain/yam farm.
Since 2015, he has mentored over 30 young graduates to start their agribusiness enterprise. He was a Next Generation Delegate at the Chicago Council on Global Affairs’ Global Food Security Symposium 2018, in Washington DC where he represented African Youth on a panel discussion on Youth Perspectives, Potential, and Progress: An Insiders’ Take. Oyewale is a fellow of the Carrington Youth Fellowship Initiative, in 2018/2019, he worked in a team of five to improve the livelihood of 21 youths and women (7males and 14 females) in Majidun, Ikorodu Lagos State. He has won several scholarships, grants. improving livestock production and reducing infectious disease burden.
E-mail: tech4ag@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 597 KB] | More info on mDiary
Panel 3: Short value chains: Innovative ideas for mitigating socio-economic pandemic impacts in agriculture and food sectornership, investments and fund raising
Jonas Musabwa Mugabe
(Moderator)
Jonas Musabwa Mugabe, a Rwanda National, started his professional career in civil society organizations (NGOs) working to empower farmers’ organizations in the Eastern of DR Congo in second half of 1980’. In 1995 he joined the Faculty of Agriculture at the National University of Rwanda (NUR) where he taught until 2005, as senior lecturer and the academic secretary in charge of teaching.
He was appointed as the Deputy Director General for Research at the Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR-now Rwanda Agricultural Board) the position he held until March 2010 when he joined the Forum for Agriculture Research in Africa (FARA) as the project Manager of the Platform for African-European Partnership in Agricultural Research for Development (PAEPARD) until the end of the project in December 2018. Since January 2019, he works as Lead Specialist for Research, Policy and Investment (RPIn), one of four clusters of FARA. The RPIn cluster aims at strengthening capacity of African ARD organizations in governance, grants management and to reinforce the science-policy nexus. Jonas M. Mugabe holds an MSc in Environment Studies from Universite Senghor d’Alexandrie (Egypt), an MSc in Agriculture Economics from Universite Catholique de Louvain (Belgium) and a PhD in Agriculture Economics from Universite de Gembloux (Belgium).
Mary Obodai
(Expert)
Prof Mary Obodai holds a PhD in Food Sciences (Food Microbiology Option) from the University of Nottingham, UK. She has an MPhil in Botany (Mycology option) and a BSc. in Botany with Zoology (Mycology and Plant Pathology option) both from the University of Ghana. She also holds a Post Graduate Certificate in Business Administration from GIMPA.
She is currently the Director of CSIR-Food Research Institute and a Chief Research Scientist. She is an Associate Professor at the CSIR-College of Science and Technology (CCST) and has over twenty six (26) years’ experience in research and development where she has coordinated and implemented a number of projects and authored and co-authored several publications. She is a 2010 fellow with the Women in Agricultural Research and Development (AWARD) and has mentored several younger scientists. Her research activities and interests include among others the evaluation of agricultural wastes for the production of edible and medicinal mushrooms, mushroom germplasm collection and identification, and their uses as functional foods in Ghana and has also worked on the characterization of the microbiota of several African fermented foods. She serves on both national and international boards and is a Council Member for Africa on the World Society of Mushroom Biology and Mushroom Products (2014 to date). She is married and has three daughters and a grandson.
Victoria Katsarou
(Rapporteur)
Victoria Katsarou has been working for KiNNO Consultants Ltd as an Innovation Consultant and Project Manager since 2013. Her professional experience includes the management of European Funded programmes and the implementation of sector-based studies in many economic sectors.
During the past years she has been involved in a number of projects dealing with Agri-food with a focus on creating cooperation schemes for enhancing innovation and competitiveness of business ventures.
She is currently involved in a programmatic study for the creation of a Food Innovation Center in Greece and also working for the LEAP4FNSSA project.
Clement Kandodo
(Idea-carrier)
Clement Kandodo, is a passionate Social Entrepreneur and a Farmer from Malawi. He holds a bachelor’s degree in agriculture and a Certificate in Business and Entrepreneurship from Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) and University of South Africa, College of Business and Leadership respectively.
Clement has over 4 years’ experience working in junior and senior managerial positions in local and international organizations which include African Agribusiness Academy, LUANAR (Natural Resources College Campus), My Age Zimbabwe, Network for Youth Development etc.
He is also the Founder of a multi award winning social businesses, FarmRide and Ecogen.
E-mail: farmridemw@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 656 KB] | More info on FarmRide
Claire Reid
(Idea-carrier)
Claire is an innovative thinker and an entrepreneur at heart from South Africa. She has an ability to look at processes and products and see a simpler, better method of getting the job done. This was the case when Claire encountered the process of vegetable gardening at the age of 16 and subsequently she invented and patented a new process for planting seed known today as Reel Gardening.
Claire obtained her Masters in Architecture from the University of Pretoria in 2010 and she attributes her business management style to the creative thinking skills she learnt while becoming an Architect. Claire co-founded Reel Gardening (PTY) ltd in 2009.
E-mail: claire@reelgardening.co.za
Presentation [.pdf | 1,3 MB] | More info on Reel Life NPC
Ibrahim Abdulmalik
(Idea-carrier)
Ibrahim Abdulmalik is a Kenyan entrepreneur with a background in Mechanical Engineering and Economics. His experience spans design engineering, fashion, and the gig-economy.
He currently heads operations at Farmula, an agritech startup building a distribution service for food producers in Africa.
E-mail: Ibrahim@farmula.io
Presentation [.pdf | 2,7 MB] | More info on Farmula
Zikiru Shaibu
(Idea-carrier)
Zikiru Shaibu graduated with a degree in a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture programme at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Currently, Zikiru Shaibu is specializing in Agricultural Extension Education through a PhD Agricultural Extension programme at the University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Mr. Zikiru is an enthused young entrepreneur who has research interest in the Application of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for agricultural value chain development.
He provides precision farming information to smallholders farmers through the use of the drones. Moreover, he is championing digitization in agriculture to improve livelihood of smallholders in the agricultural value chain.
E-mail: zikiru.shaibu@stu.ucc.edu.gh
Presentation [.pdf | 1,1 MB] | More info on YICT4Ag
Panel 4: Agroecological transitions of food systems: new ideas to link together the health of agroecosystems, animals and humans
Gordon Akon-Yamga
(Moderator)
Dr. Gordon Akon-Yamga is a Research Scientist at the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI) of Ghana. Gordon holds a PhD in Environmental Philosophy from the University of North Texas, Denton, Texas.
He has a Master of Philosophy Degree in Environmental Science and a Bachelor of Arts Degree (Hons.) in Geography and Resource Development from the University of Ghana. Dr. Akon-Yamga’s areas of research interests include environmental justice pertaining to natural resource extraction; natural resource and environmental governance; STI policy analysis, and sustainability transitions.
Presently, Gordon is the Ghana Coordinator WIDER UPTAKE, a four-year European Commission Horizon 2020 Project.
George O. Essegbey
(Expert)
Dr. George O. Essegbey, worked in Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) policy research for several years in the broad sectors of agriculture, industry, environment and across key thematic areas such as innovation studies, sustainable development, biodiversity conservation and capacity building.
He is an STI policy analyst and was the Director of the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute (STEPRI) of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) of Ghana for more than 10 years until April 2018. Currently he is the Chief Executive Officer of the CSIR-Technology Development and Transfer Centre. He has served various national and international organizations with his expertise including UNESCO, UNCTAD, UNEP, FAO, IFPRI and the World Bank. He is a member of the Ghana team working on the LEAP4FNSSA programme.
Chabi Bienvenu Adje
(Idea-carrier)
Chabi Bienvenu ADJE, is PhD student from Benin with strong passion for organic fertilizers.
He is Chief Executive Officer of African Bio-Compost Grower, a specific organic fertilizer company known as ABC Grower.
E-mail: abcgrower@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 719 KB] | More info on African Bio-Compost Grower
Christiana Okere
(Idea-carrier)
Christiana OKERE is a graduate of Environmental Science from the American University of Nigeria. She advocates for sustainable development through social entrepreneurship.
She is the founder of Indigi Foods Nigeria Limited, a company aimed at addressing malnutrition using indigenous plant species. She is a fellow of the Cherie Blaire Foundation for female entrepreneurs and the African Presidential Leadership Program.
E-mail: christiana.okere@indigifoods.com
Presentation [.pdf | 732 KB] | More info on Indigi Foods
Magloire Firmin Oteyami
(Idea-carrier)
Magloire Firmin Oteyami is a researcher from West Africa specialised on plant breeding and seed production, agronomist, environmentalist, geneticist- breeder, nominated on International Earth Day by USAID, independent consultant, project idea carrier and CEO & Founder of VART- LaB (West African Laboratory for Plant breeding and Seed Production in Benin, Burkina- Faso and Ivory Coast; – member of the global alliance for climate-smart agriculture).
He holds an agronomist degree in science and techniques of plant production, a Diploma of Advanced Studies in Plant Genetic Resources and Crop Protection and participated in the PhD Program in Plant Breeding at the University of Legon, Ghana.
E-mail: moteyami@yahoo.fr – vartlab.benin19@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 430 KB] | More info on VartLab
Olubunmi Christiana Okeowo
(Idea-carrier)
Olubunmi Christiana Okeowo is the founder and manager of Aquaborne Farms, Nigeria It is a sole proprietorship fish farming and production business, located in Lagos and duly registered under the name AQUABORNE GLOBAL ENTERPRISES.
She obtained Bachelors’ Degree in Fisheries and Aquaculture Management, University of Ibadan, Nigeria. She also has distinction in project Management from Emerging Trends Solution Academy, Nigeria. Her vision is to bridge the gap between fish production and demand in Nigeria and Africa as a whole. It is on this vision that Aquaborne Farms was conceived.
E-mail: tuplea2016@gmail.com
Presentation [.pdf | 504 KB] | More info on Aquaborne Farms