Kampala: The 4th African Grain Trade Summit, hosted last week by the East African Grain Council in Uganda, brought together policy makers, researchers, business players along the grain value chain, development partners and other players from across the globe. The wide-ranging presentations from the conference are now available for download. Specifically the summit sought to address:
* The impact of policy on grain trade in the region
* The role of trade in enhancing food security
* Exploring the establishment of Structured Grain Trade: Progress and Future Expectations including harmonized standards, warehouse receipting and commodity exchanges
* Financing African Grain Trade: overcoming the challenges, and
* Developing the grain value chains: opportunities for investment
The theme of the summit adequately captures the new thinking; in order to enhance food security, focus must go beyond production and extend to efforts that promote regional trade in food commodities. This is out of the realization that the region has a great potential to produce a tradable surplus. Indeed as some have posed ‘’Is it not the time for Africa to feed the world’’.
It is encouraging that a number of African countries have signed up to the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development program (CAADP) committing themselves to increasing their budgetary allocations to agriculture to at least 10% and there is more political will to seek sustainable solutions. The summit is therefore underpinned within this new and existing public and private sector programmes in Africa including the USAID’s Feed the Future Initiative, the European Union funded All ACP Agricultural Commodities Programme and other initiatives under the framework of the CAADP process.
In order to achieve this lofty ambition, there is need to create and strengthen partnerships at both national level through public and private linkages and internationally through the pooling of resources and knowledge sharing among the various development partners to avoid duplication and to ensure best returns on every development dollar invested.
* Day I presentations: access here.
Opening remarks by Mr Judah arap Bett, Chairman EAGC
Keynote Adress: Grain Trade Status in Africa: past, present and future, James Wild, Louis Dreyfus Commodities, Kenya
Session 1: THE IMPACT OF POLICY ON GRAIN TRADE IN THE REGION
* Promoting dialogue on grain policy interventions in East Africa. An overview of EAGC and FAO activities under the EU funded AAACP Program, Federica Angelucci, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Italy
* The role of maize price risk in technology adoption: Lessons for policies to promote smallholder productivity, Paswel Marenya, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), USA
* The Role of Evidence-Based Policy Advocacy in Promoting Regional Trade in Africa, Nega Wubeneh, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Kenya
Session 2: THE ROLE OF TRADE IN ENHANCING FOOD SECURITY
* The Role of Trade in Enhancing Food Security: a Case of Eastern and Southern Africa Region, Annastacia W. Kivuva, Ministry of Agriculture, Kenya
* Cross-Country synthesis of the Generic Design Issues of First and Second Generation Agricultural Market Information Models, Andrew Muganga Kizito, Makerere University, Uganda
* Water & Food Security through Trade of Grains-Nile Basin Countries, Hellen Ommeh-Natu, Nile Basin, Burundi
* The Role of Value Addition and Trade in Enhancing Food Security, Nuhu Hatibu, Kilimo Trust of East Africa
* Regional Trade Monitoring – A Perspective from World Food Programme, John Jagwe, United Nations World Food Programme, Uganda
Session 3: PANEL DISCUSSION:TOWARDS ESTABLISHING STRUCTURED GRAIN TRADE: PROGRESS AND FUTURE EXPECTATIONS(HARMONIZED STANDARD,WRS,COMMODITY EXCHANGES
Ian Goggin, USAID/COMPETE Program, Kenya
Alex Rwego, Uganda Commodity Exchange
Eleni Gabre-Madhin, Ethiopia Commodity Exchange
Kefer Kuchana Kateu, Chemiphar, Uganda
Leonela Santana-Boado, UNCTAD, Switzerland
* Day 2 Presentations: access here.
Session 4: FINANCING AFRICAN GRAIN TRADE: OVERCOMING THE CHALLENGES
Christian Baine, Coronet Group, Uganda
Paul Nuwagaba, Housing Finance, Uganda
Amos Tumwesigye, Audit Control and Expertise (ACE), Uganda
Richard Wangwe, Stanbic Bank, Uganda
Amon Anderson, ACUMEN Fund, Kenya
Session 5: DEVELOPING THE GRAIN VALUE CHAINS: OPPORTUNITIES FOR INVESTMENT I.E STORAGE, DRYING, ALTERNATIVE GRAINS – VALUE CHAINS
Shemmy Simuyemba, USAID/COMPETE Program, Kenya
Jamal Msami, Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA), Tanzania
GrainPro's Grain Keep Centers: a missing link in the grain supply chain, Tom De Bruin, Grain Pro Inc, Philippines
MLI's Experiences with Private Sector Investments in Grain Bulking Systems,Sophie Walker, ACDI/VOCA, Kenya
Session 6: FIVE YEARS LATER: ACCELERATING GRAIN TRADE AND BUILDING PARTNERSHIPS
Anne Mbaabu, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), Kenya
Chris Donohue, USAID/COMPETE Program, Kenya
Closing remarks by Mr Judah arap Bett, CHAIRMAN EAGC
