News

• CORAF to hold the Market for Agricultural Innovations and Technologies (MITA) in Dakar from November 02 to 05, 2022
• MITA will provide a setting where the supply and demand of technologies and innovations (T&I) will intersect, creating sales opportunities for
• The initiative was born of a synergy between three flagship projects currently being implemented by CORAF

[Dakar, October 31, 2022] - From November 02 to 05, 2022, CORAF is organizing the Market for Agricultural Innovations and Technologies (MITA) in Dakar, Senegal.

The event will bring together nearly two hundred (200) participants, from a variety of categories of players in the agricultural sector in West and Central Africa.

The ultimate aim of this meeting is to propose proven technologies and innovations (T&I) to all potential buyers, with a view to their acquisition and deployment in the field.

In this respect, a good proportion of MITA participants will be suppliers and potential buyers of agricultural T&I. 

"MITA provides an opportunity for research, the private and public sectors and potential users of technologies and innovations to meet, thereby creating a situation where proven technologies are exposed to potential buyers. It is intended to be a powerful catalyst for promoting the results of agricultural research, with a view to fostering a sustainable increase in agricultural production and productivity", said Professor Niéyidouba LAMIEN, Manager of the Food System Resilience Program (PRSA).

"There is undoubtedly a strong correlation between the rate of adoption of agricultural technologies and innovations and food and nutritional security. MITA will create a favorable environment for increasing the adoption rate of agricultural technologies and innovations in West and Central Africa, and in turn, contribute to achieving food and nutritional security and improving the living conditions of the sub-region's populations", added Dr Nicole TAHA NKOUM, Project Manager of Agricultural Technologies and Innovations for Increasing the Resilience of Production Systems and Family Farms in West and Central Africa (TARSPro).

The T&I to be provided to MITA are those responding to the various links (production, post-harvest, processing, mechanization, etc.) in the value chains and Integrated Landscape Management.

In particular, these are those that are climate-smart, gender- and nutrition-sensitive, and that have completed their generation path, i.e. proven and ready for adoption by end-users.

Targeted value chains

In connection with the three projects involved in MITA, several value chains are covered by the initiative: maize, cowpea, fruit and vegetables, mango, milk, potato, sesame, wheat, onion, tomato, meat, peanut, rice, etc.

Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Ghana, Mali, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo are among the countries targeted by MITA.

In fact, MITA was born out of a synergy of actions between three (03) projects implemented by CORAF, all of which share the objective of strengthening the promotion of access to and scaling-up of agricultural technologies and innovations. These are the countries in which the three (03) projects - PRSA, TARSPro and the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme ex-Pillar 4 (CAADP-XP4) - are being implemented.

While PRSA is financed by the World Bank, the TARSPro project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and CAADP-XP4 by the European Union.

MITA, which takes place in 2022, follows on from the West Africa Technology Fair (WATEF), scheduled for October 2021.