East Africa: Stakeholders Tackle Blows Hindering East Africa Agro Sector

Agro Sector

THE agriculture sector in East Africa is not developing fast enough to meet market demands due to the lack of commercialization, mechanization and access to information.
This among issues more than 1 000 professionals are expected to address during the Agribusiness Congress East Africa from November 29-30 in the Ugandan capital Kampala. Apart from the high-level conference with high-level expert speakers, the event will this year also feature more than 45 exhibitors, free training workshops and agronomy consultations, roundtable discussions as well as live demonstrations and crop trials.
 Event director, Yolanda dos Santos, lamented that while East African market represents 145,5 million consumers and its agriculture market was valued at more than $147 billion, the region's sector was not meeting market demands due to the aforementioned factors.
"For us to truly grasp the opportunity for East Africa, and Uganda in particular, which has evolved into the new frontier for food and grain production and the continent's food basket, we need to come together and take action to move the industry forward," she said. Dos Santos urged all industry players with a stake in agriculture to take advantage of the golden opportunity Agribusiness Congress East Africa provided to meet suppliers, buyers and technocrats and contribute to the development debate.

The event has received significant support from the industry. Geographically, East Africa consists of Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda. The region is currently enduring its worst drought in years.