Monday 14 August 2023

Food, Farmers and Leadership - MWF 2023

Tuesday, August 1st, 2023, time is 11:06am at the Omni Shoreham Hotel - Washington D.C, specifically in the Blue Room, which is located on the east-end of the hotel, there I stood on stage dressed in my best-all-black kaftan to a rousing applause. Focused but with a million thoughts running through my mind, I look to my right and see my fellows who are family at this point, so I smile while focusing on them. 

Now this was not my first time on a stage such as this, I have had the opportunity to present at the UNFAO's Africa Climate Week in Accra and on other platforms typically pitching or selling an idea to investors. But it felt different this time, as I was not asking for funding or looking to validate a business idea.

What got me here? You may ask. Let’s backtrack a bit, I was privileged to be selected to be a part of the 2023 Mandela Washington Fellowship for the Young African Leaders Initiative (YALI) from Ghana. Placed in the Leadership in Public Management track at the Texas Tech University (TTU), Lubbock, I had completed a 6-week program that encompassed academic sessions, site-visits, networking events and leadership sessions. 

As part of the program, I was selected by cohort members after the Ignite Talk (TedX styled). Listening to other fellows talk about topics that they were passionate about was inspiring. I had an idea to link my interests; food, farmers, agriculture sustainability with the reason we had all been selected to be part of 700 fellows across Africa. Then remembered a concept I developed in 2013 dubbed “Lead-A-Ship” and titled my presentation “Food, Farmers and Leadership”. 

So there I stood, having been selected to give this talk in a room of over 200 other fellows from various universities across the United States of America to present same. Taking inspiration from speeches from my cohort, I adapted bits of their speeches (with permission). I noticed how intertwined the challenges confronting each of our nations were somehow connected to food and agriculture. So I smiled, and waited for the applause to simmer down a bit, all while grateful for an opportunity to share what my TTU family believed would be a good speech.

“if you eat, you are involved in agriculture”, solving the issues related to food security in Africa demands leadership. The speech broke down the word into three “LEAD-A-SHIP” to connote a Captain leading a ship and its crew to their designated location amidst challenges. When we examine the problem of food security, we see not just a crisis but also a chance to empower the vulnerable, lift up entire communities, and promote sustainable development. We must lead with a strong sense of obligation, compassion, and dedication to the welfare of all Africans especially farmers (I’m biased). 

Realizing how complex the issue of food security is, is the first step in finding a solution. Producing more food is not the only solution; a comprehensive strategy that takes into account a number of interrelated issues is needed. Leadership must be informed by a multifaceted grasp of the issues, which range from finance, infrastructure and market access to climate change and agricultural methods. We can only create successful plans by fully appreciating the subtleties.

Collaboration is also a cornerstone of effective leadership. No single nation or organization can tackle the issue of food security alone. Our leadership must involve partnerships that transcend borders, governments, and sectors. By pooling resources, sharing knowledge, and coordinating efforts, we can amplify our impact and achieve collective success. Here, I noted the need for leaders in business, civic engagement to collaborate on all fronts. Equally important is the empowerment of local communities. True leadership is not about imposing solutions from the top down but about fostering self-reliance and ownership at the grassroots level. Providing farmers with training, access to credit, and modern agricultural tools enables them to become champions of food security within their own communities.

As leaders, we have the unique opportunity to be catalysts for change, to steer our nations towards a future where hunger is eradicated, where communities thrive, and where every individual enjoys the fundamental right to food. Let us commit ourselves to this noble cause, working hand in hand to transform the challenges of today into the triumphs of tomorrow. To end, I ask WHAT DOES HUNGER MEAN TO YOU? 

 

"the best culture is agriculture"

- Akwasi Tagoe

Wednesday 27 February 2019

All Things Lean: Lessons to run your own Startup


Having been selected to part of the first cohort of Startupbootcamp (SBC) FinTech Dubai brought its own excitement and anxiety. We were excited because our idea to provide a platform through which smallholder farmers can be connected with finance had been validated, however, the anxiety of leaving operations and being away for the programme period couldn’t be hidden. We settled it in our minds and hearts after deep deliberation of the business model and the fact that this opportunity would help the business in the long term. Over the pilot period we made sure to live the mantra of “creating and capturing some of the value we created”, that which was materializing. 

Before we got to Dubai – United Arab Emirates, we had already received emails indicating activities for week one of the FinTech Accelerator,Pressure! But let’s not focus on that. This post captures lessons learnt in week one and how it can be implemented for your own startup. Sessions were led by Dan Roe of outthebox.io. He focused on running Lean as a business and the Value Proposition Canvas.  

Before I delve into the lessons, I will indulge you to develop the Business Model Canvas or Lean Canvas for your business. I may charge you to review and fine tune it for you. But keep in mind that these are personal lessons I picked up, at the end of the day you are in charge of making decisions you feel or know will help your business. Enjoy!

 

 

 

 DO NOT SCALE PREMATURELY!

 Take careful steps when building the product, the tech or infrastructure, spending big on acquisition and staffing up. Note that the dream is to find our whether customers will pay you before you’ve finished bringing the product to the market. Most of the time we get super excited to scale or move the business to the next level having really not thought through or tested all assumptions fully. Be careful you don’t build product no one wants or needs.

 
         Lean start-up: This model favours experimentation over-elaborate planning, customer feedback over intuition, and iteration over traditional “big design up front” development. Search for your business model and execute dedicatedly, don’t be afraid to borrow from already existing-working models.           
      
       In your bid to get the gold, note that it’s not about making a single jump but by testing, verifying your assumptions and making a number of steps which I will call “the process”. Now what do you see as your 3 biggest risk right now? Think about it. Write them down and don’t forget that the biggest risk for any start-up is spending too much time building the wrong thing. 
      The Lean start-up works on 3 basic principles:   
                1. Our start-up is a big pile of guesses.    
                2 The faster we can bounce our guesses off the market, the better we’ll do.
         3. Learning is progress; building stuff isn’t

To conclude it is good to mention that the Lean Start-up has a relentless and iterative focus that prioritises the speed of customer validated learning above all else. Week one wasn’t all work, we ended the week with a trip to the desert so stay tuned for photos and a post. Follow us on our social media platforms to keep updated on posts.

"The Best Culture is Agriculture"

Wednesday 2 January 2019

Locagro: empowering smallholder farmers with innovative solutions

Majority of farmland in sub-Saharan Africa is managed by smallholder farmers. They are such important players in the food and agriculture sector, producing majority of the food consumed by urban and rural dwellers, yet they are faced with a myriad of challenges. Challenges that have been there since I was introduced to Agriculture Science in Primary School. 

Challenges that affects their well-being and livelihoods. Out of the 2.5 billion people in poor countries living directly from the food and agriculture sector, 1.5 billion people live in smallholder households. Many of those households are extremely poor.
Women are not left out as they comprise an average of 50 percent of the agricultural labour force in sub-Saharan Africa. 

Smallholder farmers when empowered hold the key to meeting sustainable development goals (SDGs) one and two with overarching effects on the 15 other SDGs. For instance, women farmers when given the same access to productive resources as men could increase their farm yields by 20 -30 percent. Women are drivers of change towards sustainable production systems and healthier diets for households. 

Smallholder farmers matter for sustainability as properly managed smallholder systems invest in building soil biomass and soil vegetative cover which improves water filtration for flood and retention in case of droughts. With reduced usage of fossil fuel, smallholder traditional practices also mitigate climate change through reduced emissions and enhanced soil carbon sequestration.

The fourth industrial revolution is upon us and leveraging on these technological advancements to provide solutions for smallholder farmers will ensure economic, environmental and social development.


At Locagro, we believe that providing solutions from farm to fork is very important to our food production system. Locagro is a Ghanaian based enterprise created in 2017 with a focus on empowering smallholder farmers with innovative farming solutions to increase their productivity and reduce the negative environmental impact of their farming activities.

Locagro integrates agriculture, technology and finance to provide solutions to three major problems facing smallholder farmers: access to market, access to capital and lack of knowledge in smart farming techniques. 

Locagro offers farmers the opportunity of a ready market even before harvest through planning of the entire production cycle, providing information to farmers, new agribusinesses (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC3q0l4YQmyePV-YqZ2lIo1w/videos) and capacity building in microdosing which is a strategy to replenish nutrients in the soil through precise application of in small doses. Through Nocofio (www.nocofio.com), Locagro provides an access to financial services by crowdfunding for smallholder agribusinesses.

Locagro has its operation base in Nsawam, Ghana. We believe policy makers should develop national agriculture plans devoid of political agenda to scale-up support to sustainable smallholder farmers, develop their entrepreneurial capacities and create viable livelihoods in the rural areas, with a special focus on women and youth. 
 

Akwasi A. Tagoe
akwasi@nocofio.com 


"THE BEST CULTURE IS AGRICULTURE" 

Monday 8 October 2018

Winners of the 2018 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition Announced

Kampala 06 October, 2018 The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is pleased to announce the 23 winners of the 2018 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition.  The competition attracted a total of 1,332 applicants from 42 African and 4 non-African countries. The following process was undertaken to identify the top 23 winners for the 2018 cohort:
  1. All 1,332 applications were screened for compliance to the set guidelines.
  2. All 1,332 applications were evaluated by 3 experts in the first phase leading to 3,996 reviews undertaken.
  3. Top 233 (17.5%) of all the applicants were selected for second level of evaluation by business leaders, leading to 699 reviews.
  4. A shortlist of 23 (9.9%) applicants were selected as the final winners of the 2018 RUYEC cohort.
  5. A decision to select 23 instead of 20 as earlier communicated in the call was guided by the fact that there was a tie among four applicants. The overall selection cut-off mark was 79 percent.
Final Winners of the 2018 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition

No Name Gender Country Thematic Area
1 Japhet Sekenya  Male Tanzania Agribusiness
2 Udekwe Chinedu Martins  Male Nigeria Green Economy
3 Joseph Manzvera  Male Zimbabwe ICTs
4 Jean Anthony Onyait  Male Uganda ICTs
5 Ashiraf Nsibambi Kyabainze  Male Uganda  Agribusiness
6 Emanuel Ng’ambwa Kungu  Male Tanzania Agribusiness
7 Mark Matovu Ssebijwenge  Male Uganda Agribusiness
8 Melissa Bime  Female Cameroon Health
9 Roy Mwangi Ombatti  Male Kenya Engineering
10 Akwasi Armah Tagoe  Male Ghana Agribusiness
11 Towenan A. Theodore Ahimakin  Male Benin Transport
12 Fred David  Male Kenya Green Economy
13 Murtala Muhammad  Male Ghana Green Economy
14 Paul Matovu  Male Uganda  Agribusiness
15 Helen Opeyemi Balogun  Female Nigeria  Agribusiness
16 Clement Kandodo  Male Malawi Green Economy
17 Elvis K. Amoua  Male Benin  Agribusiness
18 Jacob Maina  Male Kenya  Health
19 Lahbib Latrach  Male Morocco  Engineering
20 Nabuuma Shamim Kaliisa  Female Uganda Health
21 Davies Nyaigero Ateka  Male Kenya  Agribusiness
22 Sebarinda Cyusa Patrick  Male Rwanda  Agribusiness
23 Sidje Tamo Armelle  Female Cameroon  Agribusiness


This year’s competition builds on the inaugural one, which was organised in 2016 and attracted 756 applications from 38 countries. Ten (10) most competitive youth enterprises were awarded prizes during the Fifth Africa Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference held in October 2016 in Cape Town, South Africa.
The 23 winners selected this year, are invited to the Sixth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference from 22 to 26 October, 2018 in Nairobi, Kenya, and will receive their awards on 26th October, 2018.
RUFORUM thanks all the applicants who responded to the 2018 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition call, and extends appreciation to all reviewers that were able to undertaken a total of 4,695 reviews in the last one and half months.

We congratulate all the winners and our Curator Akwasi A. Tagoe on this win. 

via RUFORUM blog

"the best culture is Agriculture"