FARA–UniBRAIN partners’ programme review meeting

12 - 15 February, 2014. Lusaka, Zambia. The meeting was hosted at the Agribusiness incubation Trust (AgBiT), one of the UniBRAIN incubators established and supported by the FARA-UniBRAIN programme.

The AgBiT incubator was established in October 2013. It is part of the African Agribusiness Incubator Network (AAIN), a growing network with six incubators already established in five countries.

This facility is currently supporting fourteen incubatees including seven agribusiness Start ups and seven Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

Fourteen students are benefiting from an internship programme on business and entrepreneurship at the

The Agribusiness incubation Trust (AgBiT) in Zambia

facility while four agribusiness technologies are under commercialization, employing more than five hundred people within the vegetables and fruits value chain.

The meeting attracted over thirty-five participants from agribusiness incubators established and supported by the FARA-UniBRAIN programme in five countries namely: Uganda, Kenya, Mali, Ghana and Zambia. Other stakeholders including Zambia National Agriculture Institute, Mulungushi University, University of Zambia and Zambia Private sector forum, also attended the meeting.

Dr Freddie Kwesiga, the country representative of 

the African Development Bank in Zambia hailed 

FARA for its support and contribution 

towards private sector development

Background

UniBRAIN pioneers a new approach to promoting agricultural innovation and improving tertiary agribusiness education in Africa. It promotes innovation by improving the flow of technology and knowledge by removing barriers between actors in the value chains. It is the synergy and linkage between the diverse actors that catalyzes and drives innovations.

FARA’s partners in UniBRAIN are the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development for Southern Africa (CCARDESA), the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF/WECARD), the Association for strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA), the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE) and the Pan African Agribusiness and Agro Industry Consortium (PanAAC).

Related PAEPARD blogpost:

Inaugural conference of the Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN) initiative 19-20 April 2011. Accra.