In this guest post, Michael Hailu, Director of the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) outlines how ICTs can entice young people into agricultural professions and modernize the sector.

When I first met Gerald Otim and Opio David at CTA’s first agricultural hackathon in 2013, they had their heads locked together, preparing the pitch for the app they had been working on to improve access to finance for smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Now, they work full-time for their start-up company that not only won them the title as Eastern Africa’s AgriHack Champions, but also a place on a follow-up business incubation programme and access to financial partnerships with online crowdfunding organisations such as Kiva. Continue reading →