SVCDC - KenyaIDPA - UgandaCURAD - UgandaCAF - MaliAgBIT - Zambia CCLEARr - Ghana

Ralph von KaufmannUniBRAIN Facility Coordinator

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

UniBRAIN a new gateway

into the African agribusiness sector

NIABI 2112Roundtable on South-South collaboration, 

1530-1700 hrs February 6, 2012, New Delhi, India

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

UniBRAIN is a pan-African initiative of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) supported by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida)

Rationale

UniBRAIN Partners

UniBRAIN organisation

An emerging African agribusiness incubator network

A gateway for South-South collaboration

Take home messages

CONTENT

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

Wide scale investment in agribusiness and agro-industry in Africa is presently constrained by:

• Human and institutional capacity deficits

i.e., Not enough entrepreneurs and problem solvers

• Lack of leadership in identifying and exploiting socially responsible opportunities for investment in agriculture and the environment

UniBRAIN’s development objective is:

• to contribute to enabling African countries to create jobs and raise incomes through sustainable agribusiness development.

UniBRAIN’s Immediate Objective, which is also its value proposition, is:

• to enable universities, business and agricultural research institutions to commercialise agricultural technologies and produce graduates with entrepreneurial and business skills through agribusiness incubator partnerships.

RATIONALE

Impact pathways:

UniBRAIN

Strengthening university-

private sector linkages

Knowledge-based socio-

economic growth thro’

business incubation

Harnessing youthful vigor to spur growth

in agro-food sector

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

UniBRAIN is coordinated by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)

The university aspects are facilitated by the African Network for Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE)

The agribusiness aspects are facilitated by the Pan African Agribusiness and Agro-industry Consortium (PanAAC)

The agribusiness incubator management aspects are facilitated by the Agribusiness Incubation Programme ICRISAT (ABI-ICRISAT)

The agricultural research aspects are facilitated by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the Sub-Regional Organisations: ASARECA for Eastern Africa, CORAF/WECARD for West Africa, CCARDESA for Southern Africa

The UniBRAIN partners

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusinessr

The UniBRAIN partners (cont.)

• The Sub-Regional Organisations (SROs)

• Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA)

• West and Central African council for agricultural research and development (CORAF/WECARD)

• Centre for Coordination of Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa (CCARDESA)

•

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

The roles of the Partners:

UniBRAIN

FARA

ANAFE

PanACC

ABI-ICRISAT

Danida

SROs

Funding agencyRoyal

Danish Ministry of

Affairs

Overall coordinationForum for Agricultural Research in

Africa Facilitating university

participationAfrican Network for Agriculture,

Agroforestry and Natural Resources

Education

Facilitating private sector

participationPanAfrican

Agribusiness and Agroindustry Consortium

Agribusiness Incubator Programme of the International Crops Research Institute for the

Semi Arid Tropics

Facilitating agricultural research participation

Sub Regional Organisations

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

ORGANISATION: The UniBRAIN Facility

FARA Secretariate UniBRAIN Facility

1. Executive Director 2. Deputy Executive

Director 3. Director Finance 4. Director Capacity

Strengthening (NSF4 Budget Holder)

UniBRAIN Partnership Committee

UniBRAIN Steering

Committee

UniBRAIN Executive

Committee

UniBRAIN Facility

Coordinator*)

UniBRAIN Accountant*)

(Incubator Support)

UniBRAIN Community Manager*)

UniBRAIN Programme

Officer*)

PanAAC ABI-ICRISAT

ANAFE SROs UniBRAIN Partners

Formal/contractual responsibilities Networking/ technical relations Work programming

UniBRAIN Incubators

CURAD IDBPA SVCDC CCLEAr CAF AgBIT

Board Board Board Board Board Board

Legend

*) Line responsibilities and conditions of service to be handled within FARA’s human resource and administrative framework

UniBRAIN CAF

UniBRAIN CCLEAr

UniBRAIN AgBIT

Uni

BRAIN

SVCDCUni

BRAIN

ABP

Uni

BRAIN

CURAD

AN EMERGING AFRICAN AGRIBUSINES INCUBATOR NETWORK

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

AN EMERGING AFRICAN AGRIBUSINES INCUBATOR NETWORKUniBRAIN agribusiness incubators

The Consortium for enhancing University Responsiveness to Agribusiness Development (UniBRAIN-CURAD) focusing on plantation cash crops Specific value chain: Coffee

The Incubation and Diversification of Banana Products for Agribusiness (UniBRAIN-ABP or Afri Banana) focusing on staple food and cash crops Specific value chain: Banana

The Sorghum Value Chain Development Consortium (UniBRAIN-SVCDC) focusing on smallholder dry land food grains Specific value chain: Sorghum

The Creating Competitive Livestock-bias Entrepreneurs in Agribusiness (UniBRAIN-CCLEAr) focusing on Smallholder livestock Specific value chain: Livestock

The Innovative Centre for Agro-forestry (UniBRAIN-CAF) focusing on agro-forestry products Specific value chains: non-timber forestry products, cereals and fruits

The Agri-Business Incubation Trust (UniBRAIN-AgBIT) focusing on tropical fruit Specific value chain: Mango

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

• To share ABI-ICRISAT and NIABI experience and expertise in establishing agribusiness incubators with UniBRAIN stakeholders

• Facilitate technology commercialization between India and later other Southern countries and Africa

• Identify value chains that are important to both India and Africa, for example in rice, maize, sorghum, millet, animal husbandry, fruits, coffee, cashew, agroforestry, that offer significant opportunities for commercialising value adding technologies

A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

• Building on NIABI’s experience to develop technology incubator manuals that will be adapted and contextualized with African counterparts through product and process transfer and training

• Proven commercially important technologies will be made available for transfer to African agribusinesses from ICAR, with technical support for their adaptation and adoption

A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

• Strengthen the capacities of agribusiness incubator managers and operators

• Training will be offered to staff of the incubators through exposure visits to agribusiness incubators in India that will be selected for relevance to the trainees’ agribusiness interests.

• Indian expert business incubator managers will be available to conduct training programmes on incubator operations at the UniBRAIN agribusiness incubator

A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

• Facilitate soft landings for Indian firms wishing to enter Africa for agribusiness

•  In conjunction with GABI a national conference will be convened in India organized by NIABI to which African entrepreneurs will be invited to provide them an opportunity to meet potential business partners

• Setting up a fully-fledged seamless video conferencing facility managed by NIABI, ABI-ICRISAT and UniBRAIN that will facilitate soft landings for Indian businesses seeking partners and business opportunities in Africa

A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

• Setting systems in place with UniBRAIN for promoting effective single window solutions for Indian and other Southern entrepreneurs in Africa

• Facilitate linkages for African agribusinesses seeking partnerships and export opportunities with Indian and Southern agribusinesses

• Using the systems established under point 3 above to provide similar services for African businesses seeking to opportunities in Indian agribusiness and agricultural markets

• Establish a strategic alliance for initiating Global Agri Business Incubator network (GABI)

A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

The purpose of the gateway is to:

• Facilitate two-way technology transfer and commercialization between India and Africa

• Strengthen the capacities of African agribusiness managers and operatives

• Facilitate soft landings for Indian firms wishing to enter Africa for agribusiness

• Facilitate linkages for African agribusinesses seeking partnerships and export opportunities with Indian agribusinesses

• Establish a strategic alliance for initiating the Global Agri Business Incubator network (GABI)

TAKE HOME MESSAGES

UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness

For more information visit:

www.fara-africa.org/our projects/unibrain

THANK YOU