Regional Workshop East Africa

On 17th and 18th Mai 2018 NSO and MoFA in collaboration with WaterWatch Cooperative and AgriProFocus organized a regional workshop to share results, lessons learned and prepare for the next phase of market introduction to create impact at scale of G4AW projects.

The key question at the workshop was whether G4AW is ready for the market and what conditions are necessary to accelerate integration of the Geodata-based services in the market in the East Africa region?

-> You can download the final report "From Early Stage to Scale" here

Program
Day 1 - lead NSO

START and Introduction
08.30 - 08.45 Welcome Opening by MoFa/ Netherlands Embassy in Nairobi - Sanne Willems
08.45 - 09.00 Introduction to the program and its objectives - Adri Bakker. "State of affairs Geodata For Agriculture and Water (G4AW) - Facility."

Part I Projects
9.00 -10.00 Introduction of G4AW projects

1. CROPMON
2. GAP4ALL
3. GEODATICS
4. GIACIS
5. MUIIS
6. SIKIA
7. SUM-Africa

10.00 - 10.30 Coffee Break
10.30 - 11.30 Continuation of G4AW projects

Part II General context in which G4AW works
11.30 -12.45 Three introductions to developments in the field of Geodata for Agriculture and Water (G4AW)

1. Potential of geodata for African smallholder agriculture – Pierre Sibiri Traoré, Director of Research and Development at MANOBI and ICRISAT.
2. Use of open data in agriculture in East Africa - Muchiri Nyaggha, Executive Director at the Local Development Resource Institute.
3. Adoption of G4AW by agribusiness – Ronald Lanjouw, partner at Waterwatch Cooperative.
4. The involvement of the finance sector in G4AW in East Africa - Equity Group Foundation

Intermezzo

12.45 - 14.00 Lunch and Market Place with booths of the following projects and supporting agents:

• 8 G4AW projects
• Rabobank
• Uganda - UK IPP flood project
• ACRE
• Yielder
• AGRA
• Kilimo Trust
• AgriSpaces Nairobi

Part III Way forward: Business development Enabling conditions/Synergy and Cooperation
14.00 - 15.30 Discussions in 5 groups of 15:

1. Business Models – which business models are working; use of block chain technology considered? Moderator: Pierre Sibiri Traoré
2. Competition or Cooperation – many initiatives initiated in the field of G4AW. What is the space for cooperation? – Moderator Maureen Munjua
3. Role of AgriBusiness in G4AW – focus exclusively on smallholder farmers or involve Agribusinesses? – Moderator Ronald Lanjouw
4. Investments in G4AW – What is necessary to make the step from subsidies to investments? Moderator: Zadock Adika
5. Strategies & Enabling policies – What do we expect from governments, i.e. in the area of the promotion of open data and earth observation in agri. Moderator: Muchiri Nyaggha

15.30 - 16.00 Tea Break
16.00 - 16.30 Presentation of the results: 5 min per table.
16.30 - 18.00 Networking drinks

Day 2 AgriSpaces Nairobi – lead Waterwatch Cooperative

Goals:

1. Explore the feasibility for AgriSpaces, a Center of Excellence in East Africa to support and develop geodata-based services for Agrifood & Water to create impact at scale.
2. Participants commit themselves to working with AgriSpaces.

08.00 - 08.30 Registration of participants
08.30 - 09.00 Welcome and introduction by WaterWatch projects to the program and its objectives
09.00 - 09.15 Recap of Day 1 – Adri Bakker NSO
09.15 - 09.45 Presentation of AgriSpaces
09.45 - 10.15 Coffee break
10.15 - 12.30 Design Thinking Session to work on:

• Which problems we want to solve in agriculture & water
• What are the opportunities and threats, resume of yesterday’s result
• How can AgriSpaces contribute in fully using the opportunities
• How can G4AW projects in East Africa link to AgriSpaces to a) share and promote their results; b) learn and develop models

12.30 Closure / lunch