Sookoo wants agri-focused budget

President of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago (ASTT) Dhano Sookoo says the agriculture sector was “stagnated” under former food production minister Devant Maharaj and she would be looking forward to seeing more focus placed on infrastructure and initiatives for farmers in the 2016 budget.
Sookoo was speaking on CCN TV6's Morning Edition yesterday.
“There was absolutely no progress,” Sookoo said, referring to the agriculture sector from 2012 to 2015.
“In fact, what we saw happening in those years was the dismantling of institutions like the cocoa and coffee industry board and the Trinidad and Tobago Agri-business Association.”
Sookoo said there were also failed attempts to dismantle the ASTT.
She commended new Agriculture Minister Clarence Rambharat for meeting with the organisation on several occasions since being elected, to hear and discuss farmers' concerns.
“The conversations we have been having thus far have indicated to us that he is ready and willing to bring that change to the agricultural sector.”
Sookoo said the regularisation of land for farmers was one of the issues she would like to see addressed.
She said talks were held with the former administration pertaining to the issuing of licences for land use. However, she said, this was not sufficient.
“How effective is that licence with regards to a farmer sustaining his production and his business activity? Because you cannot use the licence to go to the Agricultural Development Bank or any other financial institution to access credit facilities to improve technology on your farm.”
Sookoo said she would also like climate change to be addressed in the budget.
“We have a very serious challenge with the climate change issue, so we want to see some strong initiatives by this Government to address climate change. 
“We want to see some strong policies coming out of this budget,” she said.

Taken from Trinidad Express

President Kenyatta wins prestigious ICT award

The International Telecommunications Union has given President Uhuru Kenyatta an award for promoting the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) for development.

The ICT in Sustainable Development Award honours the contributions made by leaders, on behalf of their country, towards harnessing the potential of ICTs for sustainable development.

President Kenyatta was given the award for the apparent progress Kenya has made in ICT development and the important role technology is playing in achieving development and service delivery goals.

The award is also meant to encourage nations to seek technological solutions to meet national and global aspirations for a sustainable and inclusive future.

Speaking at the event held at the UN Headquarters on Saturday night, President Kenyatta said the government remains committed to mainstreaming innovations and ICT to enable growth and development of the country and the whole region.

“Our National ICT Master Plan and National Broadband Strategy outline our desired path to a knowledge-based economy where ICTs underpin service delivery, and provide the bedrock of our activities in critical sectors of the economy, especially agriculture, education and health,” said the president.

He further stated that policies enacted by the government would consistently focus on innovation as an essential step to enhancing growth of the ICT sector, saying plans are underway to launch Enterprise Kenya, a fund to encourage and support innovation in the country.

“This fund will be used to aid budding Kenyan innovators and start-ups to enable them get the necessary financial support to move from idea to start-up and from start-up possibly to market in good time,” said the president.

He said the fund would be reinforced by a “strengthened intellectual legislative regime, intense capacity building and mainstreaming of ICTs in the government’s service provision to enhance ICT growth in Kenya.”

President Kenyatta thanked the International Telecommunications Union Secretary General, Mr Houlin Zhao, for nominating ICT Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi to the Broadband Commission.

“I am certain that our country will bring, through him, additional energy and creativity to enhance the very necessary expansion of the broadband footprint across the developing world, especially as we move forward to secure sustainability for the developments we have so far achieved,” said the president.

The award comes months after Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru received an award for innovations in ICT and the use of ICT in improving service delivery through Huduma Centres.

Taken from Citizen Digital

250,000 IT, telecoms professionals too small for Nigerian ICT landscape

The 250,000 IT, telecoms professionals in Nigeria, constitute only 40 percent of the actual figure needed, and are inadequate for a market and population of over 170 million people.

This was the summation of experts in business, legal and ICT sectors across Nigeria and India that gathered in Mumbai, India, at the 2015 Indian Nigerian Business Forum (INBF), organised by the law firm, Perchstone & Graeys in collaboration with the Federation of India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), last week

Theodora Kio-Lawson, Editor, Law Business, BusinessDay, who just came back from India, gives a brief-by-brief analysis of the events that transpired at the two-day meeting.

The event, where BusinessDay newspaper was highly represented, Gerald Ilukwe, managing director/CEO, Galaxy Backbone, an ICT provider for the Federal Government, said the Nigerian ICT industry was fast changing, and thus a new kind of partnership was required, beyond the export of offshore products and services to localised investments.

“Local demand will increasingly be met by local supply, as multinationals like Microsoft, IBM and SAP are no longer the ‘Go-To’ companies here. The market and its needs has expanded beyond these ones,” he said.

Ilukwe, who spoke on the theme, ‘Information and Communications Technology: Attaining Global Competitive Advantage,’ said a number of factor, such as Nigeria’s large local market, the innovation in financial services, as well as increasing investor activity – local and foreign, could enhance and see to the development of ICT in Nigeria. Others such as the absence of skilled manpower and best practices, low technology adoption in organisations and insufficient enabling legislation, could be clog in the wheel of this progress, he posited.

Also buttressing this point, Bismark Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, noted that recent challenges in the oil and gas sector underscored the need for Nigeria to diversify its economy, with ICT serving as the driver of this process.

To him, ICT has the potential of being Nigeria’s largest revenue earner, as the development of the ICT sector will lead to the transformation of other sectors.

“The industry, between 2012 and 2014, created over 12 million job opportunities, while attracting over $6 billion within this period. In 2016/17, Nigeria will experience a high investment in technical know-how in ICT, education, healthcare and agriculture; all of which will be thriving industries in the next couple of years with the support of multinational interests,” he said.

Speaking about the potentials of the IT industry in India, B. Gopalakrishnan, associate vice president, HCL Learning and Enterprise Solutions Limited, disclosed that in the last year, India’s IT sector contributed 8 percent to the GDP, employing more than 10 million people.

“Today, India is estimated to employ 3 million people, while indirect job creation is estimated at 8.9 million. Experts forecast that the industry will reach revenue of $300 billion in 2020,” Gopalakrishnan said.

Also agreeing with the above, Dinesh Madhavan, director, healthcare services, HCG, Enterprises, who also addressed the challenges and benefits of ICT from a healthcare perspective, informed the audience that ICT could be a great enabler for Nigeria’s healthcare sector, if advanced technology was adequately utilised.

Such examples, according to him, will include Cloud-based Virtual Health Records, on-the-go information on Immunisation, Tele-medicine (i.e. Tele-radiology, Tele-pathology, Tele-ICU, Tele-nursing, Tele-pharmacy, etc).

To read more, 250,000 IT, telecoms professionals too small for Nigerian ICT landscape

Taken from BusinessDayOnline

 

SERIOUS BUSINESS: Agriculture is vital

People are our most important resource and have to be fed. Agriculture is a science which guides farmers as they cultivate the soil for the growing of crops and the rearing of animals to provide food and other products for local and tourist consumption. Agricultural goods can be grown for export, to reduce the massive agricultural import bill and contribute to net foreign exchange earnings.

Locally-grown agricultural produce is more easily quality controlled and gets from farm to table in a much shorter time than imported produce. Many locally-grown products reach the consumer at a cheaper price than imported products and selected products provide our full complement of nutrients. 

Why then do we not have a comprehensive coordinated programme for agricultural development in the Caribbean rather than a piecemeal approach by territory. 

This approach has not produced a sustainable solution in the last 70 years since the Report of West India Royal Commission, also known as The Moyne Report, was published at the end of the Second World War. Many billions of dollars of national and donor funds have been wasted.

Although not formally trained in agriculture science, I have been associated with the full spectrum of agriculturalists and the agricultural sector for my entire professional life and I am still involved in one way or another.

Having been trained as a Mathematician, Statistician and Operations Research scientist in Jamaica, Wales and at the Imperial College of Science and Technology in London, I interned as a Biometrician at Rothamsted Research, formerly known as Rothamsted Experimental Station, which is the longest running agricultural research station in the world, providing cutting-edge science and innovation for nearly 170 years.

The establishment of the Biometrics unit at the Faculty of Agriculture at University of the West Indies at St. Augustine Trinidad (1968) was my first professional assignment and it is still in op-eration today under the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute. 

I was President of the Caribbean Agro-Economic Society, the Barbados Society for Technologists in Agriculture and am currently Chairman of the recently launched Global Business Innovation Corporation, which encapsulates the key components of the Caribbean Food Business Innovation Revolution.

In addition, I was an avid vegetable gardener at least twice in my life, have been involved in many agricultural development consultancies and given advice to many post graduate agricultural students over the years. 

To read more, SERIOUS BUSINESS: Agriculture is vital

Taken from The Barbados Advocate

St. Lucian to lead Caribbean Development Fund

BARBADOS TODAY – The Barbados-based CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) has a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), who will lead that organisation through its second funding cycle, 2015-2020.

He is Rodinald Soomer, an Economist, who was previously employed in the Division of Economic Affairs with the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission, from May 2005 to August 2015, where he headed the Economic Development Policy Unit.

Soomer holds a Bachelors Degree in Economics from the University of the West Indies (UWI) and a Masters Degree in Economics from Britain’s York University with a specialization in Project Analysis, Finance and Investment.

His management responsibilities with the OECS included oversight of regional sector programmes in agriculture, tourism, statistics and e-government, and a lead role in the preparation of a regional growth and development strategy.

Soomer started his career with the Government of St. Lucia in the Ministry of Planning, Development and Environment, where he served for 12 years from 1986 to 1998. During that period, he managed many multi-year programmes of development assistance from major donor and technical assistance agencies, including the British Development Division/DFID (now UK AID), the European Union, Kuwait Fund, Commonwealth Secretariat, Organization of American States (OAS), the World Bank and the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).

To read more, St. Lucian to lead Caribbean Development Fund

Taken from St. Lucia News Online

Combating challenges of poor data-driven agriculture

Information and communication technologies (ICTs), such as mobile phones, satellite data and the like – are transforming agriculture. With gadgets, such as mobile phone, computers and others, farmers receive data on crop prices and market information.

They also enjoy stable year-round prices, while eliminating middlemen and lowering transaction costs.

One farmer who is benefitting from accessing data online  is the Chief Executive, Hastom Global Services Limited, Mr Debo Thomas.

He is into cashew and plantain farming in Ogbomosho,  Oyo State. Thomas accesses data on commodity prices, and other agricultural services through his smartphone and tablet. For him, information and communication matter in agriculture. Whether for those growing crops, raising livestock, or fish farming. This is because farmers seek information from one another and from other stakeholders across the value chain.

Apart from personal contacts, Thomas has used his phone to seek information on the most effective planting strategy, where he can get improved seedlings and feeds, and how he can acquire farmland. With data gleaned from his phone or laptop, he is on top of the situation as up dated agric information helps him to cope with market changes.

He has witnessed the power of the mobile phone and how people are using it to improve communication in agriculture and rural development. New mobile applications are also being used to provide timely information to farmers. Thomas said the use of information and communication technologies (ICT) can improve smallholder farmers’ income and increase agricultural productivity. This is because increasingly affordable connectivity and tools, especially mobile phones, as well as advances in data storage and open access, have made ICT relevant to agriculture. Providing such knowledge though challenging, he noted helps  farmers to be in business.

With massive agric data coming electronically to farmers, young  people ,Thomas  said,  are attracted to agriculture and are establishing  ventures that could revitalise rural neighbourhoods. Thomas has been able to sell large acres of farmlands and help major investors to  establish agribusinesses across Oyo State. With ICT technologies, Thomas interacts profitably with farmers and other stakeholders and leverage a whole range of technologies to improve farming practices and effectiveness.

He believes that provision of agricultural services through ICTs could be a game changer that will attract young people to farming. He explained that having better market information would help young farmers to decide what to plant and where best to sell it is important. While the government may not be able to attract everybody to farming, he noted that youths who decide to go into farming can serve as good ambassadors for farming, aided by the increased use of ICT that creates a more favourable image of farming activities.

He however, lamented that farmers in the rural areas are cut off because of no internet connection. For him, lack of connectivity means that they may be unable to market their products sufficiently or access market data or agricultural research provided through online and telecommunications platforms.

He is of the opinion farming policies should be part of a wider agenda for rural development by creating an enabling social environment with services to make rural areas good places to live in. Thomas said agricultural technologies and innovations are important for rural development and food/nutrition security.

Besides, the sector needs better policies to attract young people to stay in the rural areas, in addition to providing better infrastructure and internet. He sees data driven agriculture as vital for youth employment and food security. He believes once farmers have the information they need to improve their productivity, access to financial transactions, they will be able to make much money from farming ventures.

Therefore, the government must promote suitable agricultural technologies that can be used by farmers and agro-entrepreneurs boost food production and development.  From mobile technologies that easily connect markets to agricultural products, to identifying agricultural value chains, stakeholders believe the agriculture sector must  of a necessity identify ways   of scaling up existing technologies to connect farmers to opportunities  and investors.

To read more, Combating challenges of poor data-driven agriculture

Taken from The Nation

‘Strong ICT sector will drive national development’

Business, legal and Information and Communication Technology (ICT) experts across Nigeria and India say the ICT industry has the potential of being Nigeria’s largest revenue earner, noting that the development of the sector will lead to the transformation of other sectors.

Speaking at the 2015 Indian/Nigerian Business Forum (INBF), organised by the law firm, Perchstone & Graeys, in collaboration with the Federation of India Chamber of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), Gerald Ilukwe, former CEO/managing director at Galaxy Backbone, an ICT provider company for the Federal Government of Nigeria, said the Nigerian ICT industry was fast changing, and thus a new kind of partnership was required beyond the export of offshore products and services to localised investments.

Ilukwe, who discussed the theme, ‘ICT: Attaining Global Competitive Advantage,’ explained that a number of factors could enhance and see the development of ICT in Nigeria. This includes, Nigeria’s large local market, the innovation in financial services, as well as increasing investor activity – local and foreign, others such as the absence of skilled manpower and best practices, low technology adoption in organisations and insufficient enabling legislation, could be a clog in the wheel of this progress.

He said: “Local demand will increasingly be met by local supply, as multinationals like Microsoft, IBM and SAP are no longer the ‘Go-To’ companies here. The market and its needs have expanded beyond these ones.”

Buttressing this point, Bismark Rewane, CEO, Financial Derivatives Company Limited, noted that recent challenges in the oil and gas sector underscored the need for Nigeria to diversify its economy, with ICT serving as the driver of this process.

“The industry between 2012 and 2014 created over 12 million job opportunities, while attracting over $6 billion within this period. In 2016/17, Nigeria will experience a high investment in technical knowhow in ICT, education, healthcare and agriculture; all of which will be thriving industries in the next couple of years with the support of multinational interests,” he said.

Dinesh Madhavan, director, healthcare services, HCG Enterprises, who also addressed the challenges and benefits of ICT from a healthcare perspective, informed the audience that ICT could be a great enabler for Nigeria’s healthcare sector, if advanced technology was adequately utilised in the sector.

Such examples, according to him, would include, Cloud-based Virtual Health Records, on-the-go information on immunisation, Tele-medicine (i.e. Tele-radiology, Tele-pathology, Tele-ICU, Tele-nursing, Tele-pharmacy etc.)

He said: “Electronic Health Records, which enables easy access of data to both patient and doctor, Drug Alerts, Emergency Care – M-Health, if implemented will see shorter turn-around times at the labs and hospitals. Telemedicine would also provide access to better healthcare quality in rural areas. T

“There will be electronic media used to impart awareness for various ailments, vaccinations and app/internet-based doctor appointments will see patients connecting to some of the best doctors around the world, no matter what part of the world they find themselves.”

The industry experts also revealed at the two-day event that the existing 250,000 IT and telecom professionals in Nigeria were nowhere near meeting the actual demands of the industry.

Taken from Businessdayonline.com