Agribusiness in Africa

Rob Smith, Senior Vice President and General Manager, Europe, Africa and Middle East; H. E. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, Former President, Republic of Mozambique; Christian Schmidt, Federal Minister of Food and Agriculture, Germany; H. E. Sir Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, Former President Republic of Botswana and Martin Richenhagen, AGCO Chairman, President & CEO at the AGCO Africa Summit 2015.

19 January 2015. Berlin, Germany. Agribusiness in Africa. AGCO Corporation organized the 4th AGCO Africa Summit. In cooperation with Bayer CropScience, DEG and Rabobank the aim was to capitalize on the successful events of the previous years and establish a regular dialogue on Africa’s agricultural future in the context of the problematic issue of global nutrition.

The theme of the 4th AGCO Africa Summit was “Agribusiness in Africa – Partnering for Growth” and the summit had a strong focus on private sector driven agricultural growth, promoting the idea of agriculture as a business and not just a development agenda. Speeches and panel sessions showcased implemented projects touching on successful approaches for engaging with large-scale commercial projects, how to catalyze successful mid-sized domestic agribusiness and also building scale with commercially minded smallholder farmers.

• The following dignitaries attended this year’s H.E. Joaquim Alberto Chissano, former president of Mozambique; H.E. Sir Quett Ketumile Joni Masire, former president ofBotswana and Christian Schmidt, Germany’s federal minister of food and agriculture.
• Joining AGCO in sponsoring the summit were Bayer CropScience, DEG — Deutsche Investitions - und Entwicklungsgesellschaft and Rabobank.

See the pictures of the conference.

AGCO’s Future Farms are to give local farmers and AGCO dealers hands-on training experience with leading edge agricultural equipment and practices.

They are to have a new state-of-the mechanization center, a poultry learning center and a grain handling center, which the release says, are “each a first of its kind for Africa.

A grand opening is to take place in May for a Future Farm already fully operational in Zambia. Others are planned for key African markets, primarily in Francophone countries.

Rob Smith, AGCO senior vice president and general manager for Europe, Africa and the Middle East, said that “Africa represents an important future growth market for AGCO and we are putting sustainable mechanization at the core of our strategic investments.”

AGCO invested $350 million and committed some six years of research and development into its Massey Ferguson Global Series, a new product line of 60-130hp tractors which are to ultimately be assembled at multiple manufacturing sites and are to be sold in Africa and elsewhere.

“For AGCO, ‘sustainable mechanization’ means designing our products for the African market environment and building them locally,” Dr. Smith said. “it also means providing professional training for operating, maintaining and servicing our machines, and first class support through out extensive dealer network and parts supply in Africa.”

Related:

28 - 29 January 2015. Dar es Salaam. Agribusiness Congress East Africa Conference. Over 800 agricultural experts convened to debate on finance, best practices and sustainability in the region’s blossoming farming sector.

The conference represented the entire agribusiness spectrum from input suppliers, agro-processors, traders, exporters, retailers, commercial farmers, processors, policy makers and associations.

Related:

9th to 10th March 2015. Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Agro-industry Development for Food and Nutritional Security in Southern Africa

ECA-SA, in collaboration with the COMESA and SADC Secretariats will organize an Ad Hoc Experts Group on Agro-industry development for food and nutritional security in Southern Africato discuss and review the state of the agriculture sector in Southern Africa. The meeting with take place from . 

The Expert Group Meeting will discuss emerging issues and challenges in strengthening agro-industry for food and nutritional security in the SADC region. An issues paper on Agro-industry development for food and nutritional security in Southern Africa will be the major discussion paper. The two day meeting is expected to provide concrete recommendations on how to strengthen the agro-industry sector through among others partnerships, best practices and lessons from other regions.

Participants will include agro-industry and agribusiness experts from government institutions, the private sector, SADC institutions, civil society, academia and others development partners.