1. NIABI 2112
Roundtable on South-South collaboration, on 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 THE AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
SECTOR
AgBIT - Zambia CAF - Mali CURAD - Uganda CCLEARr - Ghana IDPA - Uganda SVCDC - Kenya

3. 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

4. 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

5. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
RATIONALE CONTD.
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.

6. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
Impact pathways:
UniBRAIN
Knowledge-based
socio-economic Harnessing
Strengthening
growth thro’ youthful vigor to
university-private
business spur growth in
sector linkages
incubation agro-food sector

7. 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

8. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
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)
•

9. UNIBRAIN A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
THE ROLES OF THE PARTNERS:
Facilitating university
Overall coordination participation
Forum for Agricultural Research African Network for
in Africa Agriculture, Agrofores
try and Natural
Facilitating Resources Education
agricultural research
participation
Sub Regional Facilitating private
Organisations sector participation
PanAfrican
Funding Agribusiness and
agency Agroindustry
Royal Consortium
Danish Agribusiness Incubator
Ministry of Programme of the
Affairs International Crops Research
Institute for the Semi Arid
Tropics

10. 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

11. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
AN EMERGING AFRICAN AGRIBUSINES INCUBATOR NETWORK
UniBRAIN CAF
UniBRAIN CCLEAr
UniBRAIN AgBIT

12. 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

13. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
UNIBRAIN AGRIBUSINESS INCUBATORS CONTD.
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

14. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
A GATEWAY FOR SOUTH-SOUTH AGRIBUSINESS
COLLABORATION
• Facilitate technology commercialization between India
and later other Southern countries and Africa
• To share ABI-ICRISAT and NIABI experience and
expertise in establishing agribusiness incubators with
UniBRAIN stakeholders
• 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

15. 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
• Around 100 proven commercially important
technologies, i.e. about 5 per incubator, will be made
available for transfer to African agribusinesses from
ICAR, with technical support for their adaptation and
adoption

16. 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 each 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

17. 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

18. 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)

19. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
TAKE HOME MESSAGE
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)

20. UNIBRAIN, A NEW GATEWAY INTO AFRICAN
AGRIBUSINESS
For more information visit:
www.fara-africa.org/our projects/unibrain
THANK YOU