BY Mekonnen Teshome Tollera
AATF
Scaling for Impact:
Transforming farmers’ livelihoods in Africa through the Scaling of agricultural technologies
(Addis Ababa: May 10, 2023) – The African Agricultural Technology Foundation (AATF), one of the largest Sub-Saharan Africa smallholder agricultural technology provider non-profits, today has unveiled a five year, 2023-2027, strategy in the presence of key partners and high level government representatives.
Since its inception in 2003, AATF https://www.aatf-africa.org/ has been providing farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with practical technology solutions to overcome farm productivity constraints and now the Foundation reaffirms its commitment to further scale up its accomplishments.
AATF Executive Director Dr. Canisius Kanangire who at the occasion presented the overview of the Strategic document for participants said that the launching of the strategy aims at expanding his organization’s reach and impact by extending the delivery of products and innovations.
He underlined: “Marking the next chapter in AATF’s strategic evolution, our new five- year strategy (2023-2027), Scaling for Impact, reaffirms our commitment to improving farmer productivity and livelihoods, driving climate change resilience and sustainability, and achieving food and nutrition security across our target countries.”
The Executive Director also highlighted that the five year strategy themed “Scaling for Impact” is built around three core strategic objectives and five Cross-Cutting Priorities (CCPs) and aims to: diversify agricultural technologies and expand frontiers for next-generation products in Africa; accelerate the commercialization and scaling of agricultural technologies on the continent; and promote the creation of a functional enabling environment for increased up- take of technologies and efficient markets.
“These three objectives are critical building blocks towards agricultural transformation, covering the full food value chain motivated by the tangible reality of improved livelihoods for our people. It also confirms and enhances our alignment with major players, frameworks and agendas within the agricultural landscape,” Dr. Kanangire pointed out.
AATF Joined By Key Partners and High Level Gov’t Officials In Addis Ababa For Its Strategy Launch
Ethiopian Cabinet Minister, Ministry of Innovation and Technology (MinT) , Hon. Dr. Belete Molla in his address at the launching event congratulated AATF for the work well done so far and expressed his pleasure to learn that AATF is highly committed to Create Prosperity through Technology and agricultural transformation.
The Minister indicated that his Ministry is very indebted for the strong collaboration between Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) and AATF and added that the Ministry is also dedicated in science, Innovation and technology and commits budget for innovation incubation and applied research works conducted at national level every year.
For instance, the Minister further corroborates, a national livestock transformation projects was also launched a few years back in collaboration with Regional governments and local universities.
“Today I am pleased to see that we have an African organization, AATF, working to respond to our agricultural challenges and to ultimately realize prosperous Africa through agricultural technology development. I am confident that the five years Strategy is doable and would bring practical impacts across African countries,” the Minister said.
AATF Ambassador, H.E. Goodluck Johnatan, Former President of Nigeria, in his videotaped message conveyed at the occasion stated that AATF’s new strategy is critically aims to promote the adoption of new technologies to increase productivity improve food security and support sustainable development.
According to the AATF Ambassador, H.E. Johnatan, the newly designed AATF strategy emphasizes collaboration between different stakeholders, including farmers, researchers, policymakers and the private sector, to concretize conducive environment for innovation and technology transfer.
He underlined that today, technology has indeed become crucial for human progress, and Africa must embrace it not only to address the challenges it faces but to also accelerate attainment of its development goals. Recent shocks, such as the Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the Russia-Ukraine conflict, have highlighted the need for Africa’s farmers to adopt technology that helps them overcome supply chain disruptions and increase their output and market access.
“It is encouraging to note that more and more stakeholders are benefiting from the support of organizations like AATF, which recognizes the critical role of innovation in ag-food system transformation.”
The 21st century that ushered in a technological revolution has transformed various aspects of life, including communication, education and trade. In agriculture, too, there have been major advancements, such as the use of digital technologies to facilitate rural finance, precision farming, e-extension, IoT and AI technologies that are helping to accelerate on-farm efficiency and productivity, he added.
AATF Board of Trustees Chairman Prof. Aggrey Ambali indicated that the launching of the AATF’s five year strategy comes at am important moment where African countries have already made commitments to tackling hunger and poverty where the world is struggling against the 2030 deadline for the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which includes the eradication of hunger.
According to Prof. Ambali the development of the strategy considers the various challenges faced by Africa including climate change and other natural and man-made ones and the solutions that should be put in place.
“Our new strategy is aligned with the African Union Commission’s (AUC) vision for a prosperous and food-secure Africa. We believe that STI is critical to unlocking the potential of African agriculture,” he said.
AATF Executive Director Dr. Kanangire also indicated that AATF is currently active in 24 countries in East, Southern and West Africa, over the past two decades and it has emerged as one of the continent’s foremost technology transfer facilitators, equally trusted by private and public sector institutions.
In this welcoming remarks, Ethiopian Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR) Director General Dr. Feto Esimo on his part emphasized the role of technological advancement and innovation in agriculture and expressed the readiness of EIRA to further bolster the collaborative research and development efforts with AATF.
He also expresses his conviction that EIRA and AATF would do their level best for the practical implementation of the newly launched five year strategy.
In the launch ceremony held at the Ethiopian Skylight Hotel, representative of the Ethiopian agricultural sector , high level government officials and the academia including Dr. Abera Deressa and Prof. Firew Mekbib gave their reflections of solidarity with AATF and also representative of Kenya’s Agricultural Ministry expressed his government’s commitment to provide the needed assistance to the Foundation as it has been doing over the last two decades.
AATF’s main focuses are farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa and providing them with practical technology solutions capable of addressing their farm productivity constraints and improving their livelihoods
AATF is an organization working to address Africa’s food security prospects through agricultural technology, AATF believes that the agricultural sector is a key foundational pillar as Africa consolidates its economic growth and carves out its new position as a major global economic powerhouse and the next growth market in the world.
It was formed in response to the need for an effective mechanism that would facilitate and support negotiation for technology access and delivery and formation of appropriate partnerships to manage the development and deployment of innovative technologies for use by smallholder farmers in SSA.