The Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) Webinar - Unlocking the potential of Open Data to promote Agribusiness for Youths in Africa is set for February 24, 2020 at 2:00 PM CET.

In this webinar, Stephen Kalyesubula and  Paul Kasoma, YITEDEV-Ug will share some of the biological and technological pathways taken to unlock the value of on-farm-off-farm data and also promote sustainable Agribusiness among the youths in Uganda. They will also share how the desert locust wave is sweeping farms in Uganda and the future implications of this outbreak to Ugandan farmers, while highlighting the relevance and the benefits of the Agri-Data Forum.

Register here. 

Africa is at the height of a crisis and an opportunity. Africa’s population stands at 1.2 billion people and over 60% are below the age of 25 years. Yet most African youths are not employed, and according to the World Bank by 2035, 350 million new jobs will be needed. Because the youths are having a relatively weaker position vis-a-vis the other value chain participants (in terms of finance, education, rural location and other factors), the young agri-preneurs are often the ones who are significantly more affected by unfair data sharing, unequal or insufficient key information and data. This has been the case in most sub Saharan countries in Africa.

While this gap in information is most acutely and directly felt in terms of farm activities, markets and price, it is also equally pervasive in the planning, production and post¬harvest management aspects of smallholder agriculture. All these factors make agriculture, as an occupation for youth, a gamble, especially for key questions like; What produce can I grow where I live? When should I sow/plant/harvest/market it? How should I sow/plant/ harvest/market it? How to minimize food waste? among many others. Youths in Technology and Development Uganda (YITEDEV-Ug) is addressing these challenges head-on.

About the Presenters:

Stephen Kalyesubula is a certified computer engineer from Makerere University, Kampala-Uganda with 4 years’ experience in embedded system design, network engineering and software development. He is currently a Strategic Information Systems Officer at USAID - Regional Health Integration to Enhance Services in Northern Uganda (RHITES-N, Acholi Project). He also works as a project manager at Youths in Technology and Development Uganda  (YITEDEV-Uganda) focusing on Data for Agriculture. He has actively conducted and participated in the series of CTA-GFAR-GODAN open data webinars and conferences as a trainer and the key note presenter. Some of the webinars include: Key Data for Farmers , Data-Driven Mobile Applications. He has also worked on the number digital agriculture related projects and  participated in the publication of research papers in digital agriculture and remote engineering. 

Stephen is one the GODAN champions and part of the GODAN Action Network of trainers. He has received multiple awards from African Innovation Summit 2018 and Microsoft Imagine Cup  for leading the team research team at iLabs@Mak-Project - Makerere University in the design of IoT systems for health in Uganda. Lastly he is progressive farmer and motivational speaker.



Paul Kasoma is an agro-Technologist, a data scientist, Information systems developer as well as a trainer, He has a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology, Certificate in Open data, Certificate in feeding a hungry planet, Certificate in sustainable cities, Certificate in computer skills. He is also a senior communications executive at Youths in Technology and Development Uganda whose main mission lies in Digitizing Agriculture, ICT4 Rural Development, Open Data in Agriculture and Nutrition, Youth Empowerment and Community development. He is one of the GODAN Champion, a HIFA Country representative as well as a core participant in the RD Africa project funded by UNDEF. Paul has worked on a number of Agricultural projects and he has attended and spoken on a number of open data workshops both locally and internationally. His key technological interests include; Data science and Artificial intelligence.