Hundreds of young people in ACP countries have benefited from a wide range of projects under CTA’s Agriculture, Rural Development and Youth in the Information Society (ARDYIS) project, as well as other CTA activities that encourage entrepreneurship. Indeed, encouraging youth entrepreneurship in agriculture is at the heart of CTA’s strategy and there have been many success stories. Here we highlight just one.

MEDIAPROD, a communication for development agency based in Burkina Faso, responded to a call for proposals issued by ARDYIS in 2015. The project was seeking to identify and reward young people who had come up with innovative ideas involving the use of ICTs in agriculture. As one of five winners from over 500 applications the company was awarded a grant which enabled it to create Agribusiness TV and develop and expand its activities to over 12 sub-Saharan African countries.

“Agriculture used to be just about growing your own food,” says MEDIAPROD founder, Inoussa Maiga. “This is how my parents and the generations before perceived it. But my generation sees it differently. Agriculture is a business and there are many opportunities along the value chain. That is why I want to contribute to rebranding agriculture in Africa. The market is there and young Africans are ready to innovate.”

Agribusiness TV is the first of its type in Africa, in that it produces videos made by young people for young people. The web and mobile application is embedded in MEDIAPROD, which was launched by Maiga in 2013. Every month, Agribusiness TV makes up to six 4-minute videos, which cover a wide range of topics, from food production to value addition, from nutrition to sustainable employment creation. The company also publishes related material, such as blogs and articles, on an online platform in both English and French.

“Agribusiness TV has been a tremendous success and we are very proud of the fact that we have supported it,” says Ken Lohento, CTA’s Programme Coordinator for ICTs and youth activities. “They have produced over 100 high-quality videos. Many of these are inspiring young people to become entrepreneurs, and helping existing agri-entrepreneurs to find new markets.” After they have watched the videos, people often call or write in to ask for details about the entrepreneurs who have been featured. As a result, some have even started their own businesses in agriculture and many agripreneurs featured in the videos have expanded their business.

In 2017, agribusiness TV was awarded the United Nations World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Project Prize in the ‘media’ category. During the year they also won the Francophone Innovation Prize, another international award. By the end of 2017, their videos had received over 6 million views on various platforms. This is testament to the company’s success and the impact it is having in terms of promoting agriculture among young people in West Africa.

After they accepted the WSIS award, Maiga and his colleague Nawsheen Hosenally had this to say: “The grant we received through CTA’s call for proposals has been a boost in starting Agribusiness TV. We are now expanding our activities, notably in the production of new video formats, and a TV programme that will be aired nationally in Burkina Faso.”

With the increase in internet penetration in Burkina Faso, as well as elsewhere in Africa, the predominantly young target audience of Agribusiness TV is connected to the online service through their mobile phones. The mobile application, which is available for free on Apple’s App Store and Google Play, has been downloaded over 6,000 times to date. It enables users to access and watch all the videos produced by Agribusiness TV, read blog posts and contact one another using the chat function.

From time to time, CTA organises events to explore emerging issues related to ICTs in the agri-food sector. The 2017 ICT4Ag Outlook Workshop, held in Rhenen, The Netherlands, focused on two key issues: first, how to leverage resources to help young ICT entrepreneurs establish and improve their businesses; and second, how to harness the potential of two new innovations which could help transform agricultural practices in developing countries, blockchain and 3D printing. Over 40 people took part in the workshop, including representatives of government ministries, agricultural development organisations and banks, as well as young e-agriculture entrepreneurs and independent experts.

Otherwise known as additive manufacturing, 3D printing involves printing layers to form a physical 3D object from a digital model. Already in widespread use in the medical and manufacturing sectors, 3D printing could bring major benefits to agriculture in developing countries, for example in the manufacture of tools and machine parts.

Workshop participants benefited from the experience of two renowned international institutions working on 3D printing in the agri-food sectors: the 3D4AgDev programme of the University of Ireland, which has been developing labour-saving farm tools in Malawi, and Proximity Design, an award-winning social enterprise from Myanmar.

Just as significant – possibly more so in the immediate future – is blockchain, an emerging technology which is already having an impact in the United States and Europe. “At present, most people in ACP countries know very little about blockchain and the way in which it can be used to improve farming businesses,” says Ken Lohento, CTA’s ICT4Ag Programme Coordinator.

Blockchain is a digital ledger which allows peer-to-peer exchanges and helps to reduce or remove the role of intermediaries. It enhances the traceability of farm produce, makes transactions more transparent and helps to link all the different players in the value chain. As the information is disseminated via the internet, rather than being held on one or two computers, it can be widely shared, and this helps to reduce corruption.

Experts believe that from 2018, the use of blockchain in business processes will accelerate. Many companies facilitating the use of the technology are already operational, both worldwide and in ACP countries. A multinational finance company, Goldman Sachs, estimates that blockchain could lead to global savings of up to US$6 billion a year in business transactions.

Participants at the workshop agreed that much more needs to be done to educate farmers, entrepreneurs, policymakers and financial institutions about the advantages of using blockchain technology. They also recommended that more uses for blockchain should be developed and promoted via an online platform; that entrepreneurs should be supported to create effective blockchain solutions for agriculture; and that ACP governments should accelerate the adoption of digitisation, particularly blockchain, in the agricultural sector.

“There are not that many organisations working on the benefits of these emerging technologies for agribusiness, and we are keen that CTA should be taking a position of leadership,” says Lohento. The ICT4Ag Outlook workshop undoubtedly helped to do just that. Indeed, 80% of participants said they intended to initiate activities on blockchain use in agriculture after attending the event.

If you visited a restaurant in Samoa a decade ago, most of the food on your plate would have been imported. Today, increasing numbers of restaurant owners are doing their best to source ingredients from local farmers. Take, for example, Dora Rossi’s Paddles Restaurant. About 60% of all her fresh produce is now supplied by local organic farmers through Women in Business Development Incorporated’s (WIBDI) ‘Farm to Table’ programme.

“I love supporting WIBDI, because they’ve done so much to help local farmers,” Dora says. WIBDI was established 25 years ago, but its influence has grown significantly during recent years, with enlightened chefs like Dora Rossi and Robert Oliver, a New Zealander best known for his TV cookery programmes, providing expertise and support.

Over the years, CTA has provided considerable support for WIBDI. This has recently focused on helping the organisation to overcome some of its operational difficulties. “WIBDI came to us because they needed an effective system to manage data,” explains Chris Addison, CTA’s Senior Programme Manager for Data4Ag. “We have provided support which is having a real impact, not just for WIBDI as an organisation, but for producers and consumers.”

Since 2016, WIBDI has run a training programme for young people at its Organic Farm to Table Academy, based in Apia, Samoa’s capital. During the early years, the organisation had difficulty tracking students’ progress. With support from CTA they developed an online tool to improve their management. “We are now putting information that was previously manually recorded into a digital format,” says WIBDI project manager Faumuina Felolini Maria Tafuna’i, “and thanks to the software that we have developed, the Academy is better able to manage information about the students.” Administrators can now see exactly how students are progressing through the course.

CTA has also supported a range of other activities, including training and the development of mobile applications. For example, the Organic Farm to Table app enables tourists and local residents to find restaurants that serve organic food. By facilitating public access to this information, the app is helping to make WIBDI’s operations more efficient and transparent. It also provides a useful resource for those in search of a good meal made with locally grown organic ingredients.

CTA support has enabled WIBDI to develop another mobile application to support the distribution process and improve communications with both its suppliers and those buying their produce. The app is being used by WIBDI staff to manage the Farm to Table contracts.

By November 2017, 350 farmers under the age of 35 had attended WIBDI training workshops organised with CTA support. Of these, 160 were women. According to WIBDI, 107 new jobs were created through the CTA-funded projects. Furthermore, the organisation estimated that 350 small-scale producers had increased their resilience to climate change and environmental shocks following training, and 30 small-scale producers had increased their output and income.

Through a Memorandum of Understanding between the Pan-African Farmers Organisation, CTA and Agricord, ICTs are now being used in Africa to build the capacities of farmer organisations and agribusinesses which aggregate the produce of smallholder farmers. By using data more efficiently these businesses can raise farm incomes and create new jobs in agriculture.

For more about WIBDI, see Transforming food systems in the Pacific, CTA Stories from the Field No 4.

Over much of Africa cooperatives are viewed with suspicion, especially by farmers. “Most cooperatives in Africa were originally led by colonial officials and then by the state after Independence,” says Nicola Francesconi, CTA’s Senior Technical Adviser on Cooperative Agribusiness Development. “Unfortunately, the cooperative movement has had a troubled history and it has often been plagued with corruption.”

The 2-year Enhancing Development through Cooperatives (EDC) project, managed by CTA, is all about developing a new generation of agricultural cooperatives. “Our aim is to strengthen the managerial capacity of agricultural cooperatives and improve their business performance and the amount of money they help farmers to earn,” says Francesconi. During its first year, the EDC project trained and coached the leaders and managers of 360 agricultural cooperatives in Madagascar, Uganda and Malawi. The cooperatives which benefited have around 200,000 farmer members.

The project organised 5-day training events in each country. In Madagascar, the training was attended by around 110 cooperative leaders and the same number of representatives from government, the private sector and international NGOs. Agro-industries in Madagascar regard cooperatives as a vital link for procuring produce from farmers. However, many are failing to compete effectively with private sector companies and informal traders. During the training event, cooperative leaders reported that one of their main problems is lack of access to markets.

“What we are advocating is the creation of a favourable environment that enables every coop to get established in their supply chain and respond to market demands,” said Nirina Razafimanantsoa, a spokesperson for one of the participating cooperatives in Madagascar. Following the event, the government of Madagascar obtained a grant from the US Agency for International Development to establish and run an inter-ministerial committee that will revise existing laws and policies on cooperatives.

In Uganda, two training events organised under the EDC project, the first in May 2016, the second in July 2017, brought together the leaders and managers of about 150 agricultural cooperatives. Between these two events Uganda witnessed a severe drought. “One of the things we observed was that farmers who belong to cooperatives that benefited from the first training proved to be more resilient than farmers who hadn’t attended,” says Francesconi. This, he believes, provides clear evidence that the capacity building events made a measurable difference.

In Malawi, the EDC project organised a training event with the participation of the leaders and managers of 100 agricultural cooperatives. After the event, CTA entered a public-private partnership with the Agricultural Commodity Exchange (ACE) of Malawi. ACE is involved in the trade of agricultural commodities, especially grains and beans, and has recently made a large capital investment in four new warehouses.

CTA is providing technical and financial support to assist ACE in devolving the ownership of the warehouses to local cooperatives. To do this, CTA is helping ACE strengthen local cooperatives’ leadership and managerial capacity, improve their level of professionalism and optimise their governance structures. It is hoped that these efforts will lead to an increase in the volume of produce sold through the warehouses.