By Nita Karume:
Farmers Review Africa attended the just completed agriculture exhibition held in Nairobi, Kenya. The 5th annual Agritec Africa conference ran from the 20-22nd June took place at the Kenyatta International Conference Center (KICC). The theme of the exhibition went hand in hand with the adoption of technology in agriculture as it was dubbed “Transformation of agriculture through technology”.
This year’s exhibition saw well over 150 companies from around the globe come to participate. These came to represent more than 200 agricultural brands. Moreover, the agribusiness visitors in attendance were approximately 20,000 in average for the three days.
The 4th Agritec conference held last year’s participants had 51% agriculture farmers, 25% dairy and livestock farmers 20% dealers and distributors alike as well as embassy officials and association heads.
Participating companies at this year’s conference offered products and services in Agri Ecology, Organic Agriculture, Post-harvest treatment, Aquaculture, Biotechnology, Agro and food processing, Fertilizers and chemical, just to point out a few.
Companies such as Techno Brain were present to launch their digital agricultural platform in Kenya. This is in partnership with Microsoft and ICRISAT. The platform, which has shown tremendous growth in India where it was first introduced, will be executed in phases with a view to ensure the success of the same, as well as feasibility in different parts of the countries.
There were also first time attending companies such as Kartar Agro Industries from India. These were not only looking to market their products, but also get dealers for their products based in the country.
There was also an international conference on Agriculture and industry presentations during the exhibition. The conference was based upon the agriculture industry, the professions as well as fandom. As such, it focused on the versatility of the agricultural segment in the different zones in Kenya. It featured many keynote speakers who were able to give input as far as key information and activities in the agriculture industry is concerned.
