Opportunities and Strategic Use of Agribusiness Information Systems

Due to such factors as poor economic conditions, climate change, and conflict, food security remains an issue around the world and especially in developing nations. Rapid changes in technology over the last decade has brought a renewed focus on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) and application systems are deployed to improve rural competitiveness. Unfortunately, agricultural stakeholders in developing countries, particularly in Africa, have not been able to reap comparable benefits from adopting agricultural information systems as compared to their counterparts in the developed economies. Understanding the challenges that hinder the effective adoption of agricultural information systems and identifying opportunities or innovations is imperative to improve the agricultural sectors and overcome the problems in these developing economies.

Opportunities and Strategic Use of Agribusiness Information Systems is an essential reference book that examines the key challenges that hinder the effective adoption of agricultural information systems. Moreover, it identifies and evaluates opportunities for the strategic deployment of ICTs and information systems to drive agricultural development for the benefit of agricultural sector stakeholders in emerging countries. While highlighting such topics as agricultural entrepreneurship, food value chain, and innovation systems, it is intended to provide sound and relevant frameworks and tools that will aid agricultural industry practitioners, smallholder farmers, and managers of agricultural extension systems looking to make more effective and responsible decisions when selecting, planning, deploying, and managing agribusiness information systems. It is additionally targeted for agricultural funding organizations, government policymakers, academicians, researchers, and students concerned with exploiting the potential of a variety of ICTs and information systems in the quest to achieve food security and poverty reduction in emerging economies.

Ferdinand Ndifor Che is an Assistant Professor of Systems Engineering and Entrepreneurship. He was the Associate Dean of the School of Business and Entrepreneurship at American University of Nigeria from May 2015 until June 2017. He obtained his MBA from the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth (NH, USA), his B.Eng. (Hons) and Ph.D. from the University of Kent at Canterbury (UK), and an MSc. from Oxford University (UK). He was the founder of Energy Critic Ltd, a UK boutique consulting firm based in London partnering with small and emerging companies to transform the way businesses serve customers in the technology, telecoms, logistics, and energy sectors. He also pursued other entrepreneurial interests including starting an innovative parcel delivery and logistics business in London. He has also worked for the Financial Times, GlaxoSmithKline, and other global organizations in the past, championing the use of innovation and ICTs to create value for customers in a responsible and sustainable way. His research interests are centered around harnessing the potential of technology for the benefit of society and the application of a multidisciplinary and data science approach to management problems.

Kenneth David Strang has more than 260 mostly-sole-authored scholarly publications. He is a professor who teaches and supervises undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students across five disciplines: business administration, management information systems, marketing/consumer behavior, supply chain management and economics/statistics. Ken has a doctorate in project management (operations research), an MBA (strategic management), a BSBA (marketing), an AAS (IT) all with summa cum laude/honors plus he is an internationally licensed Project Management Professional (PMI, USA), a Certified Research Professional (IIPMR, USA), a Certified Network Administrator (Novell, USA), a Certified Supply Chain Specialist/Procurement Professional (IIPMR, USA) and a Fellow Life Management Institute with distinction (LOMA, USA). Dr. Strang has lifetime grant projects valued over $7 million+, and he has won several honors including a Behavior Energy Climate Change Fellowship from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, the Emerald Literati award and Duke of Edinborough community service medal, along with several presidential citations.

Narasimha Rao Vajjhala currently serves as the Dean of the Faculty of Engineering and Architecture at the University of New York Tirana in Albania. He previously held the position of Chair for the Computer Science and Software Engineering programs at the American University of Nigeria. Dr. Vajjhala is a senior member of both the ACM and IEEE. He is the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Risk and Contingency Management (IJRCM) and a member of the Risk Management Society (RIMS) and the Project Management Institute (PMI). With over 23 years of experience, Dr. Vajjhala has taught programming and database-related courses across Europe and Africa at both graduate and undergraduate levels. He has also worked as a consultant for technology firms in Europe and participated in EU-funded projects. Dr. Vajjhala holds a Doctorate in Information Systems and Technology from the United States, a Master of Science in Computer Science and Applications from India, and a Master of Business Administration specializing in Information Systems from Switzerland.