By Ibrahim Joenal Sesay
232news
Craving 4 Development, in collaboration with SL Agcelerator is hosting the 3rd edition of the PAN AFRICAN SYMPOSIUM ON AGRICULTURE.
According to the organizers, the Vision of the Symposium is to create a regional knowledge and partnership based platform that helps harness the power of youth involvement in Agriculture and the potential of agricultural innovation, food sovereignty as well as investments and connected supply chains in Africa.
The Symposium aims to set in motion an initiative that allows practical knowledge sharing, export readiness, and exposure to systems, businesses, enablers, and innovations in order to build robust frameworks and agro-industrial companies, with enhanced human capital, interconnected networks of experts, well-structured and accessible markets, and opportunities for sustained collaborations.
The Third edition of the Pan African Symposium on Agriculture brings 23 African countries together from today December 5th to 7th 2022 with a focus on Strengthening Agrifood Supply Chains in Africa. The event recorded 11 million engagements on social media and trended in 8 African countries for its 2nd edition held in Dakar, Senegal in November 2021.
The Overall Objective of the Symposium is to support African youth to take advantage of the great African opportunities in terms of sustainable production and value addition, access to markets, partnerships and investments.
SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES
Establish a regional platform for knowledge exchange and partnerships to harness the power of youth involvement in sustainable agriculture.
Provide information on the tools and technology packages to build soil resilience and adapt farming practices to the need of the connected markets.
Build the foundation for the integration of fair and efficient markets, including digital trade and improve competitiveness among African agro-SMEs
Create avenues for greater participation in Regional and Global Value Chains.
Leverage the Local and Regional Private sector in value chain development and for export-oriented growth strategy.
Make high impact investment opportunities available to performing Agri entrepreneurs
EXPECTED OUTCOMES
Better opportunities to develop linkages between African markets, build capacities and transfer technologies.
Young Africans are equipped to foster sustainable production and value addition in the sector.
The foundation for the integration of fair and efficient markets, including digital trade is established and competitiveness among African agro-MSMEs is enhanced.
Engagement of Local and Regional Private sector in value chain development and for export-oriented growth strategy.
STRUCTURE OF THE EVENT
The Symposium is structured in a manner to suit the varied needs and diverse stakeholder expectations. The various themes are discussed in breakdown sessions to allow a more thorough understanding of the issues.
Panel Sessions: main sessions and discussions will be held in an auditorium with 500 in-person participants and thousands of virtual participants via Zoom, Facebook Live and YouTube Live.
Breakout Sessions: Variety of sessions on the same topic with different focus: distribution of participants based on interest
An assortment of Deal Rooms: Investors and private sector companies are available to meet, discuss, network and seal deals with entrepreneurs
Open Market/Exhibitions: The villages are set up to showcase products and services as well as innovations that are representative of the African ‘Agri entrepreneurial’ potential;
African Countries representation: Many African countries will be represented and a Rainbow of African expertise and diversity will be displayed
About Craving 4 Development:
CRAVING 4 DEVELOPMENT is a capacity building and funding facilitation think-tank in Africa whose mandate is to inspire African youth and equip them with skills to efficiently face the developmental problems on the continent.
CRAVING 4 DEVELOPMENT (C4D) was founded to address issues related to unemployability rate, capacity gap, lack of inspiration and enthusiasm towards work, inaccessibility of funds, inaccessibility of the African market and of like-minded entrepreneurs.
C4D has a wide range of services, projects and programs tailored to the needs, demands and ambitions of the African entrepreneurs. Such projects include The Pan African Symposium on Agriculture, the Pan African Poetry Contest on Mental Health and The Ignition Hour Venture Building project.
