One of the tractors on display at the fair in Italy. [Photo/Kimani Chege]Italy, through the Italian Trade Agency (ITA) is pursuing collaboration initiative with African countries on expanding agricultural mechanization as a way of promoting food security.In a recent event held in the southern city of Bari, over 100 businesspeople mainly small and medium enterprises dealing in agriculture from over twenty countries in Africa had intensive one on one business meetings with their counterparts from Italy. The international Exhibition of Machinery and Technologies for Agriculture known as Agrilevante is organized after every two years in Bari bringing together manufacturers of top agricultural equipment drawn from throughout the world.These business-to-business (B2B) meetings are geared towards sealing business deals that will see various agricultural machines sold in their countries. The major countries represented included Kenya, South Africa, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Tunisia, Algeria, Senegal and Zambia.The agricultural mechanization equipment showcased in the three day event included those in farm preparation, planting, harvesting, irrigation, fruits and cereal cleaning as well as wine production. One of the Kenyan businesspeople represented in Bari was Gurprith Bhurji, the proprietor of Feil group of Companies based in both Nairobi and Kisumu. Having spent a full day interacting with businesses from Italy and Europe, she is confident that deals will be signed in the coming months. Equally, Esther Nakibirango, a business manager of Musa Body Machinery based in Kampala had several B2Bs meeting with several showing potential. Thomas Kukovec, the business development manager for Africa for an Austria based company Technik-Plus noted that his company was in the process of introducing tractors that are designed for the African terrain and was already in consultation with governments in Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia.Having evolved in close contact with the highly varied agricultural practices in the different regions of the country, the Italian agricultural mechanization industry has designed and fine-tuned technological solutions for all types of processes and for all climatic and environmental conditions. This background has allowed many companies making up the productive fabric of the sector to manufacture a vast range of machinery and equipment able to meet technological demands from the Italian regions and above all from foreign markets. The machines produced by the Italian manufacturers, specialised in arable crops as well as in horticulture, fruit-growing and wine growing, are in high demand in many parts of the world thanks to their proven capability to be suitable to the most different agricultural practices.In another side event several discussion were held on various opportunities available for investing in Africa. The event was organized by the federal construction and machinery organization known as Feder Unacoma and brought representatives from Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), Italian agencies including the regional government of Puglia, as well as representatives of the governments of Sudan and Zambia.

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