Africa’s renewed desire for reindustrialization is fraught with long-term solution to the development prospects of the continent. This desire can be seen in the African Union’s Agenda 2063 and the African Industrial Development Action Plan. The renewed desire emanates from the fact that Africa’s structural transformation has been from low productivity informal agriculture to low productivity urban based retail services. Although, the agriculture sector is more effective in reducing poverty, the manufacturing sector has ability to transform productivity and induce rapid economic growth. The ability of the manufacturing sector is largely encompassed in the industrial revolution paradigm.

The industrial revolution paradigm has gone through several phases of construction from phase one to the current fourth phase (usually referred to as 4IR). Since the post independence and Washington consensus of 1960s and 1990s respectively, the environment that Africa desire for re-industrialization has changed significantly. For example, while phase one, two and three were driven by steam and water energy, electricity and ICT respectively; the 4IR is driven by technological innovations such as automation, additive manufacturing and industrial Internet. Proponents of the 4IR asserts that the 4IR will bring significant changes to African agriculture and agro-processing due to the opportunities it offers to Africa in accelerating economic transformation into higher rates of productivity and growth. It will provide opportunities to raise Africa’s income levels and quality of life and enhance long-term gains by improving processes, increasing efficiency, productivity and lowering transaction costs.

Admittedly, there is fear that the 4IR could yield greater inequality, particularly in its potential to disrupt labor markets.
Opponents of the industrial revolution hypothesis are of the view that the 4IR is different from the earlier revolutions, as it tends to replace lower-skilled workers while complementing higher-skilled workers. They believe that 4IR will make African economies lose their cost advantage and potentially their ability of achieving rapid economic growth by shifting workers to factory jobs.

It is against the prevailing debates about the fourth industrial revolution and the Africa’s renewed desire that AGREST seeks to bring together academicians and practitioners to among others critically brainstorm on the changing environment towards African reindustrialization, advancement in technological innovations and their implications to Africa’s agribusiness. More specifically, the conference will look at the prospects, opportunities and challenges of 4IR and its implication to agribusiness in the continent?

AGREST conference is intending to receive a wide range of contributions addressing the complex issue of agricultural and agroprocessing
development in Africa under the auspices of 4IR. We therefore welcome all types of contributions: empirical,
theoretical, conceptual and practical by scientists and practitioners. The following are sub themes of the conference:

• Technological innovations and sustainable intensification
• Innovations in agricultural markets
• 4IR implications to Gender roles
• Entrepreneurship, Education for 4IR
• The influence of institutions on the growth of Agri-food processing in Africa
• Impact of intermediaries on agricultural marketing in developing economies
• The digitalization and agriculture transformation in Africa

Important dates are as follows:

• Submission of abstract – 30th September 2019
• Notification of acceptance – 2nd October 2019
• Submission of full papers – 5th November 2019

Good quality presented papers will be published in the proceedings of the AGREST. All submissions should be done online through the following emails: ndyetabula@sua.ac.tz and msuyaee@sua.ac.tz