The Eastern Africa Grain Council has today launched the Makueni Farmers Agribusiness Fair (ABF), the first in a series to be hosted by EAGC in the country. The Makueni ABF, targeting the Kenyan Lower Eastern region, is scheduled to take place on 1st June, 2022 at the Makueni Agricultural Training College (ATC), Makueni County. The Agribusiness Fairs will feature the theme “Climate Smart Technologies and practices for sustainable livelihoods”.
The Agribusiness Fair is expected to attract exhibitors who will showcase an extensive range of innovative technologies to address the interlinked challenges of food security and climate change. Exhibitors will also showcase agribusiness products and services to allow learning on interventions for enhancing the capacity of agribusinesses, to eventually create and raise income through sustainable agribusiness development.
The challenge of keeping up with the constantly rising demand for food has been worsened by agriculture’s extreme vulnerability to climate change. The negative impact of climate change is already being felt in the form of extreme temperatures, unpredictable weather variability, emerging invasive crops and pests, and more recurrent extreme weather events.
In the recent past farmers have reported reducing crop yields and their nutritional value exemplified by the global shortage of soya bean among other crops leading to lower production of animal feeds and hence lower livestock productivity.
According to the World Bank, there is need for the globe to produce about 70 percent more food by 2050 to feed an estimated 9 billion people. To achieve adequate food production and food quality increase there is need for substantial investments in climate adaptation.
In a bid to solve the challenges of climate change, soil nutrients, pests and diseases and the use of outdare technology among others that have riddled farmers in the lower Eastern, over 20 exhibitors will showcase existing solutions. These include climate change best practices in crop production, farm management, pre and post-harvest handling technologies and innovations as well mature crop demonstration plots.
The ABF held in partnership with the Agricultural Training Centre (A.T.C) Makueni and the Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and Fisheries, will bring together over 2,000 farmers, seed and fertilizer companies, Agric-equipment manufacturers, traders, processors, warehouse operators, government, machinery companies, financial institutions, agricultural consultants and researchers from within and beyond the county.
The expo seeks to empower farmers through climate-based knowledge sharing and training on the most recent innovations and technologies. In addition, the expo will provide a platform for exhibitors and the closely linked sectors to showcase their products and innovations for adoption as well as enable business networking by the various players in the industry.
The expo is also expected to provide an opportunity to link buyers and sellers of agricultural produce, inputs, equipment and machinery via the exhibition arena to achieve record sales by the sellers. In addition, the expo will provide an opportunity for networking where partners, sponsors and exhibitors will get the opportunity to interact with the participants and create business relationships.
