This Webinar is part of the Data Rights and Responsible Data Working Group series, seeking to inform and build awareness of the questions and challenges surrounding data rights in agriculture and nutrition open data.

Click on the image to watch the Webinar on GODAN's YouTube Channel:

About the Webinar

Africa is at the height of a crisis and an opportunity. Africa’s population stands at 1,2 billion people, with over 60% 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 young people are in a weaker position compared to other value chain participants (in terms of finance, education, rural location and other factors), young agri-preneurs are often significantly disadvantaged by unfair data sharing, unequal or insufficient key information and access to data. This is the case across most sub-Saharan African countries. While this gap in information is most acutely and directly seen in farm activities, markets and pricing, it is also equally pervasive in the planning, production and post-harvest management aspects of smallholder agriculture.

All these factors make agriculture a gamble for young people, giving rise to key questions such as: What produce can I grow where I live? When should I sow/plant/harvest/market produce? How should I sow/plant/ harvest/market produce? How can I minimise food waste? Among many others. Youths in Technology and Development Uganda (YITEDEV-Ug) is addressing these challenges head-on.

In this Webinar, Stephen Kalyesubula and Paul Kasoma, representatives of YITEDEV-Ug, share some of the biological and technological pathways taken to unlock the value of on-farm-off-farm data and promote sustainable Agribusiness among young people in Uganda. They tell us about the desert locust wave, sharing their first-hand experience of how the blight is sweeping farms in Uganda, and explore the future implications of this outbreak on Ugandan farmers. They also highlight the role, relevance and the benefits of the Agri-Data Forum in the region.

About the Panelists

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 for 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 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 a GODAN champion 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. He is a progressive farmer and motivational speaker. 

Paul Kasoma is an agro-technologist, a data scientist, an information systems developer and a training specialist. He has a bachelor’s degree in Information Technology; and is certified in open data, food security, sustainable cities and computer skills. He 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.

Paul is a GODAN Champion and 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 key agricultural projects, and has presented numerous open data workshops, both locally and internationally. His main technological interests include; data science and artificial intelligence.

Find out more about the Data Rights and Responsible Data Working Group, including how to get involved, HERE.