2nd African Conference on Precision Agriculture Connects Science and Practice

2nd African Conference on Precision Agriculture Focused on Activating Scientific, Technological and Educational Solutions for African Farmers

The 2nd African Conference on Precision Agriculture (AfCPA) concluded on December 9th after 2.5 days of sessions designed to bring together experts in precision agriculture (PA) from across Africa and around the World to discuss the PA discipline within the African context, and how best it can be applied for the benefit of African farmers.

AfCPA is a biennial event organized by the African Plant Nutrition institute’s (APNI) through its partnerships with the International Society of Precision Agriculture (ISPA), the African Association for Precision Agriculture (AAPA), and Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P).

The ongoing mission of AfCPA is to build a forum dedicated to “connecting the science and practice needed to put precision agriculture in action for Africa.”  The conference was structured as a hybrid event with the main conference site in Nairobi, Kenya, and 10 other in-person satellite sites distributed across North, West, East and Southern Africa. The sessions were also available globally via livestream. At the close of the conference, this 2nd edition of the conference featured over 140 presenters speaking to audience of 700+ registrants representing 34 countries (18 in Africa).

We anticipate that the reach of AfCPA2022 will continue to grow as registrations to access on-demand, recorded content will remain open from the conference website (https://PAafrica.org) for the next 90 days,” said Dr. Steve Phillips, AfCPA Program Chair and APNI Principal Scientist.

Group photos from AfCPA Satellite Sites in Côte d’Ivoire, Uganda, and Ethiopia (top to bottom).

Over the course of the 2.5 days, the main program from Nairobi featured 7 keynote speakers, 20 plenary presentations, and 3 in-depth panel discussions. Satellite sites offered local plenary sessions which extended the scope of the conference and gave researchers an opportunity to discuss regional-specific issues. AfCPA partner organizations serving as national satellite site hosts were:

  • National Polytechnic Institute Félix Houphouët-Boigny (INP-HB), Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire
  • National Authority for Remote Sensing & Space Sciences (NARSS), Cairo, Egypt
  • Ethiopia Institute of Agricultural Research (EIAR), Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
  • CSIR-Savanna Agriculture Research Institute, Tamale, Ghana
  • Nassarawa State University, Keffi, Nigeria
  • University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, South Africa
  • Advanced School of Agronomy/University of Lomé (ESA-UL), Lomé, Togo
  • National Institute of Agronomic Research of Tunisia (INRAT), Tunis, Tunisia
  • College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences
    Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
  • Plant Production Sciences and Technologies, University of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe

Planning has already begun as organizers look forward to the next AfCPA conference anticipated for 2024.

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