KIAG @ PEFC Forest Certification Week 2017

November 17, 2017

In this years Forest Certification Week in Helsinki, the PEFC strived to explore and discover the benefits and potential for incorporating technology solutions into forest certification. For this occasion, selected guest speakers have been invited to share their experiences and ideas. Harald Puhl of KIAG was part of the workshop "SMART solutions for strengthening trust and traceability throughout value chains" This session featured some of the latest and greatest technological developments from certified forestry supply chains. It wanted to inspire and re-imagine how the information flow and product assurances of certified products can continue to evolve in the future. The session built clarity around:

• What are the ‘must have’ technologies to maximize the impacts and effectiveness of Chain of Custody?
• What technology applications show promise for transferring complex information in a useable and credible form?
• How could technology surpass the current information scope of Chain of Custody and help certification to deliver more value to companies and customers?

It featured a range of tools and approaches to strengthen due diligence and risk assessment processes, supplier engagement, log tracking technology and dynamic data transfer.

Out of Africa – InnovAfrica

November 8, 2017

KIAG staff Stephan Kunz has started his field-trip through the six African partner countries of InnovAfrica, a program which has been funded by European Commission up to 2020. KIAG has already developed a KIPUS tool for the complex household questionnaire that covers also value chains for various crops such as maize, millet, and bracharia grass. Now, we create with all the 16 partners in South Africa, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya and Ethiopia a structure for a digital knowledge platform. It is the aim to have an information and communication platform for all stakeholders involved in the value chain. The web-based tool will generate and correlate all dynamic and static data from the field in order to deliver material for research and development. First of all extension and advisory experts shall receive knowledge and practical, applicable inside views from best practice experience to implement it in closed cooperation with small-holders. The knowledge platform will be presented at the end of the month of November 2017.

Launch of Voucher Management System in Ghana

July 14, 2017

In Ghana the new Voucher Management System for vocational training went online on Friday the 14th. After touching speeches from representatives of Ashanti King, Deputy Minister of Education, Kumasi Mayor, Executive Director of COTVET, Birte of KfW and Nicole of German Embassy the red button was pressed to deliver the first training vouchers. They will give Ghanaian youth along with their master crafts persons access to formal training to raise the profociency level throughout the country. The software was implemented by KIAG in tight collaboration with voucher management team of COTVET and PLANCO, the executing consulting firm and external project lead.

Great opening of the "character heads" exhibition in Munich

July 11, 2017

Under the minister's patronage and white and blue Bavarian sky, a fantastic vernissage of this worldwide unique exhibition took place on July 11th in the Munich Glyptothek, frequented by several hundred people. In their speeches, director Florian Knauss and his deputy and curator of the exhibition, Christian Gliwitzky, outlined in a brilliant walk-through the importance and the highlights of the collection being presented to the visitors. Once again, KIAG media guides, available as iOS- and Android-apps in the app stores as well as on loan devices in the museum, lead the visitor through this exhibition in two alternative guided tours. Read more on the museum website

Kick-off meeting for InnovAfrica project in Kenya

June 07, 2017

The European Commission is financing the InnovAfrica program from 2017 to 2020.The project aims to improve food security in Africa by integrating ways of increasing productivity for smallholder farms with innovative institutional approaches. The project will take place in six African countries. It is the challenge to implement and extent the services on sustainable agriculture intensification (SAI) for the crops of maize, millets and brachiaria grass for livestock. In total eight different agricultural value chains are the objective of the research program that focus on the direct application of smallholders and farmers. KIAG as the only involved SME has the crosscutting function to collect, analyse and interpret data and information with the 16 African and European partner organisations. Digitization gains an essential function as vehicle to generate and disseminate knowledge. The kick-off meeting took place in Nairobi at ILRI centre in the week of June. Photo credit: BecA-ILRI Hub/Ethel Makila

Status Analysis on TVET within the agricultural sector of Vietnam

Mar. 24, 2017

Steffen Wüstewald, a student of KIAG partner Technical University of Dortmund, has started his thesis in the two Vietnamese provinces of Ho Chi Minh and Lam Dong province. In close cooperation with KIAG staff Nguyen Thi Ngoc Phuong he analyses the situation of the vocational sector with regard to the job profiles for agriculture. Vietnam is still in its infant stage to establish a system for technical and vocational education and training (TVET). Despite the fact of a strong national policy to reinforce the agricultural production, formal training in farming has been neglected. Wüstewald is conducting different series of interviews with students, teachers and agricultural experts to analyse the current situation.

Network of multi-stakeholders: establishment versus civil society?

Mar. 17, 2017

The yearly workshop session of Don Bosco Mondo, one of the largest network for technical education and vocational training (TVET) globally, focused on network structures. Dr. Stephan Kunz from KIAG joined one session together with Steffen Gunnar Bayer from the ‘Association of German Chambers of Commerce and Industry’ (DIHK) to analyse options to support TVET within networks abroad. Kunz explained the new network approach of several KIAG partners in Vietnam and the Philippines to promote the concern of sustainable farming. The KIAG expert highlighted the enormous need to establish the job profile of modern farmers, who are not only planters any-more. The global demographic and economic development requires much more emphasis on skilled farmers in order to assure food security and create jobs in rural areas. That requests the closed cooperation of all stakeholders within the agricultural value chain. Finally, establishment and civil society have to collaborate to achieve their particular targets.

WeTrace User Interface Design: Winners Chosen

Mar. 8, 2017

Winner of the "Frog King" (Froschkönig) award this year is also the winning team of the user interface design for the mobile WeTrace app. KIAG has sponsored a seminar giving students the possibility to design user interfaces for a real-world case. WeTrace gives consumers the possibility to learn about the production of the food they consume. The winning team Caroline Konrad und Kim Huber have convinced the jury through their efficient and innovative use of mobile devices in conjunction with beautifully handcrafted fish drawings, bringing together the best of both worlds. Congratulations!

Ghana: Traceability for Agriculture

Mar. 7, 2017

Ghana has been banned from exportation to the EU due to substandard quality deliveries. In the framework of the BMZ-financed, GIZ-implemented and AFC-run "Market Oriented Agriculture Programme" (MOAP) Harald Puhl of KIAG has demonstrated how agricultural production can be combined with approaches of blended learning and traceability leading to improved quality and full transparency from the seed to the fork. Animated discussions with producers, producer associations, trade, project and last but not least government have taken place to find issues to the current situation.

Photo: Flickr, Chad Skeers, CC BY 2.0, unedited

KIAG Vietnam is involved in Multi-Stakeholder Partnership

Mar. 7, 2017

KIAG Vietnam will provide assistance to the BMZ funded Multi-Stakeholder Partnership (MAP) in Vietnam and the Philippines. Main organisations are the German non-profit foundation justiceF that has initiated the program in collaboration with its Vietnamese partner Viet Watch and the Philippine Association of Negros Producers. It is the aim to integrate all stakeholders of selected agricultural value chains in order to implement tailor-made solutions for sustainable agriculture. The mutual exchange among the Asian partners will be a special note within that project. KIAG Vietnam will assist in the ICT component.

Ghana Voucher Program

Mar. 7, 2017

Being led by Planco (Hamburg, Germany), in this project KIAG implements a voucher administration system for Ghana financed by KfW (Germany). Apprentices from the informal sector are encouraged to step up their knowledge for the sectors they are working in through vocational training. Informal meetings with Fred Kyei Asamoah, the new Executive Director of the Council for Technical and Vocational Education and Training (COTVET) along with long working days and good food in a traditional African mix have ensured the good specification work as a founding layer of the system to be built.

Start of United Genetics seed study in South-East-Asia

Feb. 17, 2017

United Genetics S.P.A. (UG) is an Italian seed company that is on process to extent its activities in South-East-Asia. Thailand, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar are on the list for the expansion mainly for vegetable seeds. KIAG has tailored a software to collect market and trial data for all relevant seeds the company has bred and will breed in the future. It is the target to identify the best regions for specific crops so that UG can start its business promotion. The first team meeting was hold on 10. February at the headquarter office of Kenso in Kula Lumpur. Kenso is a Malaysian input provider for agriculture and well established in the region. Kenso will cover by its local experts the research service for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and Myanmar. KIAG Vietnam will be in charge for South Vietnam. Martin Baerwind (at the right in the picture) is the Asian director of UG and steers the study in close cooperation with KIAG Germany.

R&D presentation for consumer interface

Feb. 11, 2017

KIAG continuously develops further new modules for its own KIPUS software in order to match the needs of producers, processors, and the trade within the food chain. At the same time, the company has started partnership with ecosign academy in Cologne in order to research and develop on digital consumer interfaces. 15 students under the guidance of lecturer Uwe Boden faced the complexity of different consumer attitude and knowledge in relation to food and its information. The core question remains ‘what does the consumer need to know?’. In the presence of KIAG staff that has assisted the academic project and the ecosign director, Simone Fuhs, an internal participatory assessment has been made on 8. February in Cologne. According to KIAG CEO, Harald Puhl, a lot of amazing ideas came out that should be used by the company in the near future to communicate data and information on food in B2C relation straight to the consumer. On 22. February ecosign academy will name the winners in the Cinedom of Cologne. KIAG wants already to express its gratitude to the whole group. The winner team will go with KIAG to Vietnam.

New staff at KIAG headquarters

Feb. 11, 2017

KIAG is happy to present its new staff in order to strengthen the WeTrace department. Mounia Essefiani (at the right) is a well-experienced expert on different agricultural standards and operates projects at KIAG. The multi-lingual woman is originally from Morocco, grewing up in Brussels, before she entered the German labour market. Corinna Peters (at the left) is a working student, who cares about data management and business intelligence. She is doing her Master thesis in collaboration with KIAG related to the food sector. Duong Nguyen (in the middle) is Vietnamese and will start by April 2017. She is another Master student of KIAG. Duong wants to apply her new knowledge as she considers the dual science approach as the best model for contributing to the agricultural sector in Vietnam.

Presentation of the Children's Media Guide for the Association of Friends and Benefactors

Feb. 1, 2017

At the New Year's reception of the Association of Friends and Benefactors of the Glyptothek and State Antiquities Collections, Wolfram Puhl and Nils Brüchert presented the new Media Guide for children (aged 6-14) to an audience of 150 guests. Using selected sequences from the app, the story of the making of the app was explained -- starting with the creation of the pedagogic and didactic concept, including the specification of guide components and the composition of the project team, up to the production of the guide. The presentation and the content of the children's guide were received with great interest by the visitors and were often topics of conversation during the evening. The app is available as a free download for Android and iOS.

Introduction of new Media Guides for Kids in the Museum

Feb. 1, 2017

With great curiosity, the children of two school classes explored the Glyptothek in Munich for the first time using the new Media Guide produced by KIAG. Two age-specific tours enable the children to experience the unique treasures of the museum in a child-friendly way. Glauki, the museum owl guides the children through the rooms. Each room has a riddle to be solved under the watchful eye of the stern Athena. The content is presented in dialogues between Athena, Glauki and the sculptures themselves. At the end of the tour, the kids receive a surprise gift as a reward for answering questions and solving games. Read some praise and feedback in the press: Süddeutsche Zeitung, 2017-02-01 Bayernkurier, 2017-02-01 with Video: Preview on Radio Feierwerk, 2017-01-29: Radio report as MP3 The dialogue texts were created entirely by the museum archaeologists, and KIAG was responsible as a general contractor for the specification, app development as well as execution and orchestration of all other participants like animators and voice actors. The project team consisted of 15 members, project lead KIAG: Wolfram Puhl, Nils Brüchert. The app is available as a free download for Android and iOS.