African nations look to India for seeds, farm inputs

Participants of the 2^nd Africa-India Agricultural Economic Mission
during the Business to Business (B2B) meeting in Hyderabad

11-16 December 2011. Hyderabad, India. 2nd India-Africa Economic Mission laid groundwork for South-South collaboration. It was organized by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and the Brussels-based EMRC International.

The 25-member mission from Nigeria, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ivory Coast, Chad, Malawi and South Africa comprised of academicians, planners and strategists, top executives and technical directors of private firms brought together by the economic need and the desire to ensure sustainable development in Africa.

In addition to the discussions, the field visits and the knowledge sharing, several Business to Business (B2B) meetings allowed the participants and their Indian counterparts to get down to business and forge partnerships.

KK Sharma of ICRISAT and Idit Miller
of EMRC International at the B2B meeting.

“It was an eye opener for me. During the B2B, I explored various business opportunities in India. Our population is far less than that of India but still lots of people sleep hungry. I want to use the technologies of India and implement them in our country,” says Mr Muhammed Nurallah Abubakar, Executive Director, Livestock and Fisheries Development and Marketing Company, Federal Ministry of Nigeria. “This was a great initiative by ICRISAT and EMRC. I have been in touch with the ICRISAT office in Nigeria since 10 years to understand various agricultural technologies. Setting up an agribusiness platform in Nigeria will be a great help to our country,” he added.

“B2B meetings are essential and one of the main reasons for taking part in these economic missions. One needs to be introduced to the most fitting business partner,” explains Idit Miller, EMRC International’s VP and Managing Director. “This mission emphasizes the need for private and public sector dialogue and partnerships”.

Related:
8 dec 2011 EMRC supports AFRICA. Video debate on Voxafrica TV with Mr Weinberger who works for the Enterprise and Industry Directorate General of the European Commission in Brussels and with Idit Miller of EMRC. They talk about the promotion of SMEs in Africa.
[the video is 24 minutes but a technical error occurred: the debate is repeated a second time to 47 minutes]


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Training program on agribusiness incubation for SSA

Dr Ralph von Kaufmann, Technical Coordinator,
UniBRAIN-FARA, in a discussion with Dr Dar and others

21-24 November. Aiming to promote agribusiness ventures in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through value-chain based agribusiness incubators, ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program under its
Agribusiness Innovation Platform (AIP) organized a training program on “Strengthening the capacity of UniBRAIN – Agribusiness Innovation Incubation Consortia (AIIC) members” at ICRISAT-Patancheru.

The training program primarily aimed to strengthen the capacity of AIIC members in incubator planning and management, in view of UniBRAIN’s plan to set up an African Business Incubators Network (AFBIN) similar to the Network of Indian Agri Business Incubators (NIABI) of India. The training was focused on incubator management, planning for incubation operations, client selection, setting up systems and processes, and other key aspects of setting up successful business incubators to promote entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)

Twenty six participants from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN), Pan African Agribusiness and Agro Industry Consortium (PanAAC), Agro forestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE), Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA), Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricoles (CORAF) and SADC joined the training program at Patancheru, which had 30 resource persons from infoDev, ISBA, STC, Trec-STEP, Technopark, Villgro, etc. who provided and shared their vast and rich experiences in agriculture and agribusiness.

The training was continued at the Business Planning and Development (BPD) units of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore and Ooty.

Background
UniBRAIN is a program of FARA supported by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA). It is facilitated by a team of partner institutions comprising FARA Networking Support Function for Capacity Strengthening (FARA-NSF4) and its associated sub-regional organizations – ASARECA, CORAF, Centre for Coordinating Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa
(CCARDESA), African Network for Agriculture, ANAFE, PanAAC, and ICRISAT Agri-Business Incubator (ABI).

USAID and Impact Investors Capitalize new Equity Fund for East African Agribusiness

September 28, 2011. A new fund has been set up by a group of impact investors and a US government agency to drive growth in East Africa’s troubled agricultural sector. Already, $25 million has been invested into the African Agricultural Capital Fund (AACF) by the US Agency for International Development (USAid) and impact investors, who include Bill &Melinda Gates Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation.

Pearl Capital Partners, a Kampala-based specialised African agricultural investment fund manager, will be responsible for investing the funds in at least 20 agriculture-related small and medium-sized enterprises in East Africa over the next five years.

“The AACF will catalyse the growth of small and medium agribusinesses in East Africa,” said Julie Sunderland, the director of programme-related investments at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. She added that since they work with smallholder farmers across the agricultural value-chain, these businesses are important for the sector’s sustainable development.

However, according to the managing partner of PCP, Tom Adlam, a funding gap exists for small-cap agricultural businesses across East Africa, between large-scale commercial banks and microfinance institutions.

“This new fund will help to address this gap, providing long-term capital to entrepreneurs who are building businesses in the agriculture sector while delivering quality financial returns for investors,” Mr Adlam added.
In fact, there is optimism that the establishment of the fund could signal a change in fortunes for the businesses.
“We are optimistic that the success of AACF and the individual businesses within its portfolio will encourage additional capital investment in enterprises employing, purchasing from, and providing inputs and services to smallholders,” said Ms Sunderland.

The CEO of the Global Impact Investing Network, Luther Ragin, Jr, concurred that collaboration between the diverse investors would result in increased capital to the sustainable African agricultural sector.

Besides targeting positive financial returns, the fund is also interested in having significant social impact through provision of employment, secure markets and improved products for smallholder farmers across East Africa.