1. UniBRAIN a new gateway
into the African agribusiness sector
NIABI 2112
Roundtable on South-South collaboration,
1530-1700 hrs February 6, 2012, New Delhi, India
Ralph von Kaufmann
UniBRAIN Facility Coordinator
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
AgBIT - Zambia CAF - Mali CURAD - Uganda CCLEARr - Ghana IDPA - Uganda SVCDC - Kenya

2. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
CONTENT
UniBRAIN is a pan-African initiative of the Forum for Agricultural
Research in Africa (FARA) supported by the Royal Danish
Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Danida)
Rationale
UniBRAIN Partners
UniBRAIN organisation
An emerging African agribusiness incubator network
A gateway for South-South collaboration
Take home messages

3. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
RATIONALE
Wide scale investment in agribusiness and agro-industry in Africa is presently
constrained by:
• Human and institutional capacity deficits
i.e., Not enough entrepreneurs and problem solvers
• Lack of leadership in identifying and exploiting socially responsible
opportunities for investment in agriculture and the environment
UniBRAIN’s development objective is:
• to contribute to enabling African countries to create jobs and raise incomes
through sustainable agribusiness development.
UniBRAIN’s Immediate Objective, which is also its value proposition, is:
• to enable universities, business and agricultural research institutions to
commercialise agricultural technologies and produce graduates with
entrepreneurial and business skills through agribusiness incubator
partnerships.

4. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
Impact pathways:
UniBRAIN
Knowledge-based
Harnessing
Strengthening socio-economic
youthful vigor to
university-private growth thro’
spur growth in
sector linkages business
agro-food sector
incubation

5. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
The UniBRAIN partners
UniBRAIN is coordinated by the Forum for Agricultural Research in
Africa (FARA)
The university aspects are facilitated by the African Network for
Agriculture, Agroforestry and Natural Resources Education
(ANAFE)
The agribusiness aspects are facilitated by the Pan African
Agribusiness and Agro-industry Consortium (PanAAC)
The agribusiness incubator management aspects are facilitated by
the Agribusiness Incubation Programme ICRISAT (ABI-ICRISAT)
The agricultural research aspects are facilitated by the Forum for
Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) and the Sub-Regional
Organisations: ASARECA for Eastern Africa, CORAF/WECARD for
West Africa, CCARDESA for Southern Africa

6. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusinessr
The UniBRAIN partners (cont.)
• The Sub-Regional Organisations (SROs)
• Association for Strengthening
Agricultural Research in Eastern and
Central Africa (ASARECA)
• West and Central African council for
agricultural research and development
(CORAF/WECARD)
• Centre for Coordination of Agricultural
Research and Development in
Southern Africa (CCARDESA)
•

7. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
The roles of the Partners:
Overall coordination
Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
Facilitating university
participation
African Network for
Agriculture, Agrofores
Facilitating agricultural try and Natural
research participation Resources Education
Sub Regional Organisations
Facilitating private
Funding sector participation
agency PanAfrican
Royal Agribusiness and
Danish Agroindustry
Ministry of Consortium
Affairs
Agribusiness Incubator Programme of
the International Crops Research Institute
for the Semi Arid Tropics

8. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
ORGANISATION: The UniBRAIN Facility
Legend
FARA Secretariate
UniBRAIN Facility
Formal/contractual
responsibilities
UniBRAIN
Steering Networking/
Committee technical relations
Work programming
1. Executive Director UniBRAIN
2. Deputy Executive Executive
Director Committee
3. Director Finance
4. Director Capacity
Strengthening UniBRAIN UniBRAIN
(NSF4 Budget Holder) Facility Partnership
Coordinator*) Committee
UniBRAIN UniBRAIN UniBRAIN
*) Line responsibilities and
conditions of service to be handled
Programme Accountant*) Community
within FARA’s human resource and Officer*) (Incubator Support) Manager*)
administrative framework
UniBRAIN Partners
UniBRAIN Incubators
ANAFE SROs
Board Board Board Board Board Board
PanAAC ABI-
CURAD IDBPA SVCDC CCLEAr CAF AgBIT ICRISAT

9. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
AN EMERGING AFRICAN AGRIBUSINES INCUBATOR NETWORK
UniBRAIN CAF
UniBRAIN CCLEAr
UniBRAIN AgBIT

10. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
AN EMERGING AFRICAN AGRIBUSINES INCUBATOR NETWORK
UniBRAIN agribusiness incubators
 The Consortium for enhancing University Responsiveness to Agribusiness
Development (UniBRAIN-CURAD) focusing on plantation cash crops
Specific value chain: Coffee
 The Incubation and Diversification of Banana Products for Agribusiness
(UniBRAIN-ABP or Afri Banana) focusing on staple food and cash crops
Specific value chain: Banana
 The Sorghum Value Chain Development Consortium (UniBRAIN-SVCDC) focusing
on smallholder dry land food grains
Specific value chain: Sorghum
 The Creating Competitive Livestock-bias Entrepreneurs in Agribusiness
(UniBRAIN-CCLEAr) focusing on Smallholder livestock
Specific value chain: Livestock
 The Innovative Centre for Agro-forestry (UniBRAIN-CAF) focusing on agro-
forestry products
Specific value chains: non-timber forestry products, cereals and fruits
 The Agri-Business Incubation Trust (UniBRAIN-AgBIT) focusing on tropical fruit
Specific value chain: Mango

11. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration
• To share ABI-ICRISAT and NIABI experience and expertise in
establishing agribusiness incubators with UniBRAIN stakeholders
• Facilitate technology commercialization between India and later
other Southern countries and Africa
• Identify value chains that are important to both India and Africa,
for example in rice, maize, sorghum, millet, animal husbandry,
fruits, coffee, cashew, agroforestry, that offer significant
opportunities for commercialising value adding technologies

12. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration
• Building on NIABI’s experience to develop technology incubator
manuals that will be adapted and contextualized with African
counterparts through product and process transfer and training
• Proven commercially important technologies will be made
available for transfer to African agribusinesses from ICAR, with
technical support for their adaptation and adoption

13. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration
• Strengthen the capacities of agribusiness incubator managers
and operators
• Training will be offered to staff of the incubators through
exposure visits to agribusiness incubators in India that will be
selected for relevance to the trainees’ agribusiness interests.
• Indian expert business incubator managers will be available to
conduct training programmes on incubator operations at the
UniBRAIN agribusiness incubator

14. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration
• Facilitate soft landings for Indian firms wishing to enter Africa for
agribusiness
• In conjunction with GABI a national conference will be convened
in India organized by NIABI to which African entrepreneurs will be
invited to provide them an opportunity to meet potential business
partners
• Setting up a fully-fledged seamless video conferencing facility
managed by NIABI, ABI-ICRISAT and UniBRAIN that will facilitate
soft landings for Indian businesses seeking partners and
business opportunities in Africa

15. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
A gateway for South-South agribusiness collaboration
• Setting systems in place with UniBRAIN for promoting effective
single window solutions for Indian and other Southern
entrepreneurs in Africa
• Facilitate linkages for African agribusinesses seeking
partnerships and export opportunities with Indian and Southern
agribusinesses
• Using the systems established under point 3 above to provide
similar services for African businesses seeking to opportunities
in Indian agribusiness and agricultural markets
• Establish a strategic alliance for initiating Global Agri Business
Incubator network (GABI)

16. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
TAKE HOME MESSAGES
The purpose of the gateway is to:
• Facilitate two-way technology transfer and commercialization
between India and Africa
• Strengthen the capacities of African agribusiness managers and
operatives
• Facilitate soft landings for Indian firms wishing to enter Africa for
agribusiness
• Facilitate linkages for African agribusinesses seeking
partnerships and export opportunities with Indian agribusinesses
• Establish a strategic alliance for initiating the Global Agri
Business Incubator network (GABI)

17. UniBRAIN a new gateway into African agribusiness
For more information visit:
www.fara-africa.org/our projects/unibrain
THANK YOU