The webinar highlighted the interlinked challenges of food security and accelerating climate change as well as showcase climate smart initiatives by awardees in the EC funded AgriFI portfolio. The webinar entailed discussions on the net effect of collaborations within government, SME's and other actors while exemplifying potential in different value chains.
- Sam Nyamboga, the founder and CEO of Acacia EPZ, which is a Kenyan export company that exports Gum Arabic sourced from over 3000 pastoralists in Kenya’s Northern Arid Lands. He is also a founder member of the Gums & Resins association in Kenya.
- Atul Patel, the Senior Outgrower Manager at Vegpro. He has extensive experience in establishing & managing outgrower programs and his work focuses on supporting farmer groups to deploy climate farming techniques & mitigate climate related risks.
- Charles Opanga, Project Manager at Lake View fisheries. He is an aqua culturalist with over 10 years’ experience working in the development & private fisheries sectors with fish farmers.
- Dr. Joshua Cheboiwo, Director of KEFRI with over 30 years’ experience in forestry research, specializing in forest policy, legislation, environmental economics, marketing and trade in natural resource products. He has consulted for various development agencies such as FAO and the African Forest Forum; and has attended numerous forums across the globe to share his experience.
- Calvin Okungu – Programme Coordinator, Agriculture and Natural Resources Management. He will be the moderator at the #WorldEnvironmentDay webinar. Some of the work that he leads at SHA is on the implementation of practices that conserve soil moisture or contribute to addition of soil moisture such as soil and water conservation and conservation agriculture (CA) which minimizes soil disturbance. Additionally, sustainable soil fertility management using organic materials which recycle essential nutrients in the soil are also key. He is also focused on climate smart agriculture practices that increase global tree cover which works towards managing atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions.
Background
The Challenge Fund is funded by the European Union and co-funded by SlovakAid. The European Investment Bank (EIB) – under the AgriFI Kenya programme – is providing long term local currency financing to Equity Bank (Kenya) Limited for on-lending to eligible food and agriculture sector projects. Match funding is also available for successful applicants. Self Help Africa and Imani Development Limited are the Challenge Fund Managers.
EDFI-AGRIFI (Agriculture Financing Initiative)
The EDFI-AgriFi is a Facility of the EU which aim is to provide long-term finance and/or working capital needs in the form of debt or equity, on commercially-oriented terms, to MSMEs active in agri-food value chains and involving smallholder farmers in low and lower-middle income country, but with a focus in Sub-Saharan African countries.
AgriFIs’ innovative high-impact smallholder financing provides
an integrated approach towards smallholder service delivery models, which
typically includes the full spectrum of training, pre-financing of inputs,
marketing and value adding services. Over the last few years new initiatives
have been started in this segment, taking advantage of mobile technology to
lower transaction costs.
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