Overall theme of the 2016/2017 Vijverbergsessions is “The African future is for young, well educated, market oriented and organized farmer-entrepreneurs”. On February 8, 2017, the session is organized in cooperation with Prem Bindraban of VFRC , and focuses on “Tailoring Soil and Plant Nutrition — for Nutrition-Sensitive and Climate-Smart Agriculture”.  

Topic & target

Sustainable agricultural intensification has to drive overall development of sub-Sahara African countries. Demand for food will continue to grow with its rapid population increase in both rural and urban areas. With more than half of the population below an age of 20 years today, food availability and supply chains should be tuned to these markets and conditions. Because soils, the production base for agriculture, in SSA are nutrient poor, nutrient supply should be soil and plant specific in tune with water management and other agronomic practices.

In this session, we will present the need for data-driven management for sustainable agricultural intensification, and entrepreneurship in input and output markets. ICT-based (nutrient) management recommendation, market information, enhanced post-harvest processing and optimized logistics are all conducive for youth engagement in the food and agricultural sector. With policies setting the conditions for these technologies to prosper, the African continent will leap frog decades of backlog in development.

The objective of this meeting is to exchange insights about upcoming opportunities in innovative fertilizer technology, data-driven decision making and targeted market development to effectively push up agricultural productivity.

Programme

17.00 Opening

19h00 Drinks & snacks

More information will follow soon on the website of foodFIRST.

Vijverbergsessions

Vijverbergsessions are closed sessions where academics, politicians and experts from the government, civil society and business discuss global food issues; goal is to formulate conclusions relevant for policy makers. The Vijverbergsession are organized by foodFIRST together with various organizations. In 2016/2017 the overall theme is “The African future is for young, well educated, market oriented and organized farmer-entrepreneurs”.