ICT for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa @ the IST-Africa 2013

29 - 31 May. Hosted by the Government of Kenya through the Ministry of Higher Education Science and Technology, and Supported by the European Commission (EC) and African Union Commission (AUC), IST-Africa 2013 was the eighth in an annual series of Ministerial Level Technology Research Conferences.

Focused on Information Society and ICT Policy Dialogues, International Development and Research Cooperation and Community Building, each conference brought together senior representatives of leading public, private, education and research organisations from 50 countries to discuss policy, share insight and identify collaboration opportunities.

The goals of the IST-Africa Conference Series was to

1. Support Development of the Information Society and Knowledge Economy in Africa
2. Promote International Research and Development Cooperation and Coordination
3. Showcase African Research and Innovation Capacity
4. Stimulate exploitation of research results by the public and private sectors

Two workshop covered ICT for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa

• ICT Supporting Agriculture, Forestry, Environment incl. Smallholder FarmersWalter Mayer, Progis Software GmbH,Austria
• Vexcel Imaging / Microsoft, Image Data Collection and Mapping – Global Ortho: Rapid, High Efficiency Ortho Update TechnologiesCarol Sella Kinuthia, Microsoft East and Southern Africa, Kenya (to be confirmed)
• Opening Access to Research Data for Agricultural Development ; AjitMaru, Global Forum onAgricultural Research, Italy
• Weather Index Insurance and Other Climate Related Services hrough Multi-purpose Monitoring Networks ; Bernhard Pacher, Adcon Telemetry, Austria
• Strategic Research Agenda for Introduction of Innovative Approaches on Data Exchange in Agrifood Industry ; Karel Charvat, Help service remote sensing s.r.o., Czech Republic
• The Importance of IT in Agriculture and Necessity of Agro-ICT Infrastructures ; Lucy Muchoki, Pan African Agribusiness and Agroindustry Consortium, Kenya
• From Geoportal to Geosocial Space; Tomas Mildorf, Czech Centre forScience and Society, Czech Republic
• Complex Solution for Sensor Network in Precision Farming ; Michal Kepka, Czech Centre forScience and Society, Czech Republic
• Worldclass Agribusiness Practice: What is the role of Executive Management ; Education ; David Mugun, Director, Strathmore University, Kenya

 More information on the ICT for Sustainable Agriculture in Africa workshop here

A French delegation composed of Sabine Jaume (RENATER), Joël Sor (Cirad) and DamienAlline (IRD) attended this conference following a recommendation of the European Union (DG CONNECT).They made a presentation on the development of Research and Education networks in Central and West Africa. The aim was to show examples of "user driven" needs and to contribute to the next steps of AFRICA CONNECT, a project funded by the European Commission and the African Union. (see: La Conférence IST-Africa 2013 s'est tenue à Nairobi)