Articles
Impact Stories
For farming fortune, dial mAgri
A Botswanan start-up is breaking the barriers to digital technologies for rural smallholder farmers. Brastorne Enterprises, a winner of CTA’s 2016 Pitch AgriHack competition, operates a mobile platform called mAgri to improve farmers’ access to information, markets and finance.
Read MoreLovin Kobusingye, the accidental entrepreneur
Sharing actionable knowledge helps to turn ideas into reality. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) has seen powerful returns from bringing together young entrepreneurial thinkers and doers from all over Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
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Blog articles
Where passion is profitable - why agripreneurship is so rewarding
Young, imaginative, resourceful and risk-loving defines a growing band of young entrepreneurs in the business of farming. Unlike their parents and grandparents, whose work in agriculture was often one of drudgery and poverty, the new generation farmers and agripreneurs love what they do.
Read MoreWhy expanding value chain access is important for young agripreneurs
When engaging with youth agripreneurs in Africa on the challenges they face, access to finance emerges as a key concern. Closer scrutiny of their business models generally reveals that young entrepreneurs are often not deemed creditworthy, or suitable for investment, primarily because they lack consistent and deep access to their perceived target markets. In short, their order books are lean and their access to markets is limited.
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Crowdfunding, a new agricultural investment model driven by young entrepreneurs
Faced with the lack of available finance for agricultural businesses from traditional banks, innovative entrepreneurs are turning to digital technology to access investment from the general public. Crowdfunding platforms have many advantages, but also entail some risks if there is to be trouble-free development of this alternative source of finance.
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A passion for storytelling about youth in African agribusiness
In 2016, Inoussa Maïga and I founded Agribusiness TV, the first web TV to target African youth engaged in agricultural entrepreneurship. Our objective was to make agriculture more attractive to young people by showcasing stories about people who have successfully launched agribusiness start-ups. Today, with more than 100 videos from 12 African countries, Agribusiness TV has carved a reputation as a channel that highlights youth success stories in agriculture. How did we do it? Let’s take a look behind the scenes.
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Accelerating youth agri-incubators in Africa - Lessons from Nigeria
Since business incubation/acceleration initiatives, especially in agriculture, are new to Africa, the adoption and the consistent recording and analysis of their impact is still work in progress. Prompted by youth employment or under-unemployment, incubator/accelerators chiefly support youth entrepreneurship development - from the ideation/innovation phase to assisting more seasoned enterprises seeking support for faster expansion.
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Background articles
Linking farmers to markets with just a click
A winner of CTA’s Pitch AgriHack competition, Farmart – an online farmers market – enables farmers to sell their produce for more money and reduce post-harvest losses.
Read MoreAywajieune, developing online fish trading in Senegal
Aywajieune, winner of the Suguba Award for the best Senegalese start-up at Pitch AgriHack West Africa 2017, is the first platform in Senegal to connect fish sellers and buyers. Thanks to the CTA, the startup will receive support from Ernst & Young to help it develop plans for growth.
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Offering ICT solutions to meet the specific needs of Ivorian farmers
In Côte d’Ivoire, ICT4DEV, the best Ivorian start-up at Pitch AgriHack 2017, has developed mobile applications to meet the needs of local farmers.
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A shared journey of learning at the Pacific Week of Agriculture
The first Pacific Week of Agriculture (PWA) opened on 16 Oct 2017 in Port Vila, Vanuatu. Taking the theme CROPS – Culture, Resilience, Opportunities, Products, Sustainability - PWA sets out to foster dialogue and commitment for realising the potential of agriculture in a region that is facing a number of economic, social and environmental challenges.
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News articles
Bottling Mali’s wild plants for nutritious drinks
In 2016, Aïssata Diakité launched Zabbaan Holding – a company that makes juices from plants grown locally in central Mali by over 5,000 farmers.
Read MoreAn entrepreneur must be competitive and creative, but above all, open-minded
At the age of just 24, Madagascan Heritiaina Randriamananatahina heads up a cheese and syrup processing business that is growing fast. Lacking any formal qualifications, he discusses the barriers facing any aspiring young business man or woman in the agri-food industry.
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Of financiers, farm-ternships and a failed catfish farmer
After losing 700 of 1,000 catfish fingerlings in her debut fish farming enterprise, Divine-Love Akam switched to working in agriculture, a sector many investors and banks think twice about supporting.
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CTA at the 2018 AYA forum
Under the theme “Technologies and Innovations for Youth in Agribusiness”, the 2018 African Youth Agripreneur Forum (AYAF) and AgriPitch Competition will be held in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire, on 9–13 April 2018. The events, organised by the African Development (AfDB), the Government of Côte d’Ivoire and with CTA’s collaboration, are expected to attract over 400 participants from across the continent, including young agripreneurs, agribusiness leaders, investors and development partners.
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Bayseddo: a digital platform to boost agriculture in Senegal
In 2016, Mamadou Sall, working with Thierno Souleymane and other young Senegalese entrepreneurs, launched Bayseddo, a networking platform for farmers and investors in Senegal, aiming to optimise agriculture through digital technology. The start-up won the CTA’s Pitch Agrihack 2017 competition, and its first results are already beginning to show.
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Interviews
Online platform improves the livelihood of small farmers in Ghana
Michael Ocansey, a computer science specialist, and Francis Obirikorang, a chemical engineer, developed the online platform, AgroCenta, won CTA’s 2017 Pitch AgriHack initiative, which gives youth entrepreneurs an opportunity to develop their business services and accelerate the adoption of their services. In an interview with CTA, Ocansey talks about AgroCenta – which links small-scale farmers and farmer organisations in Ghana with a big online market to improve the prices they receive for their commodities.
Read MoreKarim Sy: ‘We cannot think Africa without agriculture’
Forty-six-year-old Karim Sy rejects the label of ‘incubator’, preferring to describe himself as a ‘serial entrepreneur’. Nevertheless, Jokkolabs, his non-profit organisation set up in Senegal in 2010, now has 12 hubs spread in Africa and Europe, and is trying to uncover the African entrepreneurs of tomorrow. Recently appointed to the Presidential Council for Africa by French President Emmanuel Macron, Sy has also been working for several years with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) through the AgriHack programme.
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e-Agribusiness: A vital resource for Togo’s agriculture sector
Back in March 2015, Togolese entrepreneur Edeh Dona Etchri launched the e-Agribusiness platform to connect people and organisations across the country’s agriculture sector. It has proved a vital source of information for otherwise isolated farmers and is helping to grow the sector nationwide. The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) worked with the founder to help him expand and market his business. Today, there are around 6,000 farmers across Togo using the platform.
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Scientific Articles
Young agripreneurs create markets for farmers in the Congo
To encourage value addition of cassava and provide employment opportunities for local farmers, women and youths in the Democratic Republic of Congo, young entrepreneurs have established eight processing centres across the country.
Read MoreA passion for porcine production
Accounting for 38% of worldwide meat production, pork is attracting a new generation of African entrepreneurs – bucking the continent’s traditional aversion to the meat.
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Ismaël Tanko turning tomato into red gold
Ismaël Tanko, a 33-year-old entrepreneur, has created a fast-growing company whose tomato purees are already on sale in several West African countries. The next step is a more industrialised production line and an increased number of sales channels.
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Don’t leave technology to the men
Dr Eleni Gabre-Madhin, CEO and Founder of blueMoon – Ethiopia’s first youth agribusiness incubator – shares her experience as a woman entrepreneur in Africa’s agricultural sector and stresses the importance that agribusinesses ‘think digital’.
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Home-grown ICT solutions in agriculture come from young entrepreneurs
Young innovators in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific region, have recognised the need for creative solutions to raise agricultural productivity and the huge prospective market for their ICT-enabled services in agriculture. Although they still face many challenges, their products have the potential to transform agricultural value chains in developing countries.
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