FARA Extends Brazil-Africa Cooperation to Private Sector Driven Agribusiness Innovation Platform
Within the context of a South-South Collaboration model, FARA is developing a framework that would institutionalize a private sector driven initiative which seeks to heighten the Africa-Brazil cooperation and collaboration frameworks in the field of Agriculture. The framework is being developed by FARA in collaboration with Brazil Africa Institute.
The initiative will serve as a platform for connecting Brazilian and African agribusiness sectors to take advantage of innovation-driven agribusiness opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean. Thus it will harness the power of Brazilian agricultural research and development facilities and the state-of-the art technologies and products of the Brazilian private sector operatives developed in the country on one hand, and the potentials for growth in Africa on the other, bringing together, financial institutions,
farmers, investors, companies, women, young entrepreneurs and other stakeholders with focus on a particular value chain at a time, to create an enabling environment and market opportunities for upward spiral growth.
Toward this end, the President of IBRAF, Professor João Bosco Monte, visited FARA Secretariat on the 11th of September 2017 to start discussion on the platform. IBRAF has been working across Africa to promote the interest of Brazil and Africa in different projects to foster the relationship between the two regions.
The first summit of the initiative is expected to take place within the first quarter of 2018 with cassava, sugarcane, tomato, and cotton as possible commodities of focus.
The program is supported by key partners from agricultural development banks in Africa, commercial banks, policy makers etc. Furthermore, FARA and IBRAF are supported in the program by His Excellency, Former President John Kufuor.
In addition, FARA shall help actualize IBRAF’s vision of African Youth Technical Training Program (YTTP), an African Development Bank (AfDB) supported gender-sensitive program on youth empowerment, which targets young people between the age of 15 and 25 from across Africa for training in Brazil.
FARA will be at the 5th Brazil Africa Forum: trends in innovation and technology for sustainable development organized by IBRAF in November 23-24, 2017, to be held in São Paulo, Brazil. The event will provide the opportunity for FARA to start engaging with prospective partners of the new initiative.
