Our team
Behind the TAAT Technology e-catalogs, two dedicated teams play a pivotal role: the Technology Profiling team and the AKM Services team. These teams work hand-in-hand to deliver an exceptional experience, whether you're a Decision-maker seeking innovations to transform agriculture in Africa or a Technology Provider offering cutting-edge solutions. Together, with the help of our advisors, we developed the e-catalogs and built the systems that ensure everything runs smoothly.
We also often collaborate with expert consultants to keep the technology profiles in the e-catalogs up-to-date with the latest insights on topics like economic analysis and Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion.
The ongoing work of the Technology Profiling team populates the e-catalogs with detailed but relevant and clearly expressed information about the technologies we showcase. We strive to explain technologies to those who can decide to adopt them, by presenting them in the best way possible for our audiences.
Technology Profiling – TAAT Clearinghouse (IITA)
Marie Michèle Codja
I am Marie Michèle Codja, holding an MSc in Crop Science, and I serve as a Technology Profiling Consultant at TAAT Clearinghouse. Within TAAT, my role entails sourcing technologies for our database, creating user-friendly profiles, and evaluating them using the Scaling Readiness tool. With my expertise in Crop Science, I am dedicated to utilizing technology to foster agricultural innovation and sustainability throughout Africa. Let's work together to make a difference in African agriculture!
Beata Adonon
I am Beata Adonon, a Technology Dissemination consultant at the TAAT program (Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation), holding a Master’s degree in Agronomy. As a Technology Profiler, my role includes collecting, simplifying complex information, and organizing data on agricultural technologies to power the TAAT database and e-catalogs. Drawing upon my expertise in Agronomy, I am committed to leveraging technology to drive agricultural innovation and advance sustainability across Africa.
Hardi Hinvi
I am Hardi Hinvi, a Technology Profiling Consultant at TAAT Clearinghouse, holding a Master's degree in Crop Science. My responsibility is to gather, translate, and organize data on agricultural technologies to fuel the TAAT's database and e-catalogs. With a strong background in agriculture and expertise in planning and communication, I strive to create effective and accurate digital catalogs for the private, governmental, and institutional sectors. My goal is to promote the adoption of proven and validated technologies to transform agriculture in Africa.
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Rolande Amoussou
I am Rolande Amoussou, an Agronomy Engineer with a specialization in Plant Pathology and Technology Profiling Consultant with the TAAT Clearinghouse. In my current role, I work on compiling, structuring, and interpreting data related to agricultural innovations to strengthen the TAAT database and its digital catalogs. I focus on making technical knowledge more accessible and actionable for diverse users. I am driven by the ambition to support the uptake of resilient and sustainable agricultural solutions that can effectively respond to the challenges faced across African farming systems.
Bruno Tran
I am Bruno Tran, Scaling Expert at the TAAT Clearinghouse. With my young colleagues from the Technology Profiling team, we designed the concept of the technology database and its e-catalogs and worked closely with the AKM Services team who transferred our ideas into a powerful and user-friendly system that you can access online.
Advisors
Professor Adebayo Akinola
Agro Economist Expert
I am Prof. Adebayo Akinola, Agricultural Economist and Head of Department at Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria, where I teach and conduct research. For over 20 years, I have applied economic analysis to value chains, seed systems, farm-level efficiency, and technology evaluation across sub-Saharan Africa. For the TAAT e-catalogs, I have conducted return-on-investment analyses of technologies to inform scaling and adoption strategies.
Dr. Béla Teeken
GenderUp Expert
I am Béla Teeken, Gender, Youth, and Social Inclusion Program Leader at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Cotonou, Benin. My research advances inclusive agricultural innovation through participatory and citizen-science approaches that integrate gender dynamics, market insights, and user perspectives to guide breeding for social impact. For the TAAT e-catalogs, I help strengthen the profiling of social and gender inclusion potentials of technologies and align country engagement with social impact priorities.
AKM Services
Frank Sonntag
I am Frank Sonntag, an atmospheric scientist by training, with nearly 30 years of software development experience, mostly writing custom websites with complex databases and scientific business logic at the core. In the last 20 years I have built a real-time synchronised weather database for the BBC, built numerous databases and content management systems for the digital media sector and in 2012 formed AKM Services to develop systems that help to improve the lives of smallholder farmers. At AKM Services, I have planned, implemented and run a range of specialised content management systems. I am also responsible for hosting and maintaining these systems.
Lisette Slegers
I am Lisette, user experience and interface designer at AKM Services with over 20 years' experience. After having worked for many of the big names in London, I joined forces with Frank in 2017. Although I am traditionally schooled in visual and graphic design, I started working on design and user experience of digital products and services early on in my career. Being curious about the nuts and bolts of websites I have also branched out to front-end development.
Karin Kilian
I am Karin - having my academic background in geography and biology and a genuine interest in languages, sustainability and information management, I have been supporting software development in various international development projects for many years. Within AKM Services, I am a vigilant bug tracker and a conscientious software tester, as well as AKM's dedicated translator, localizer and documentation writer. I am responsible for data scraping and online research, as well as for the technical user support.
Tom Haddon
I am Tom, developer and systems engineer. My career in IT has been a journey of constant learning and building. I started tinkering with systems early on and naturally gravitated towards Linux administration, and web application development. I enjoy the full lifecycle – from writing code, building sustainable CI pipelines, and deploying web applications to developing detailed documentation and contributing to high-level strategic planning. Familiarity with DevOps and cloud platforms (particularly Kubernetes and OpenStack) allows me to adapt and thrive in evolving tech landscapes. I'm versatile, detail-oriented, and passionate about finding efficient, effective ways to get things done technically.
Latest technologies
Bringing farmers, vets, and institutions together to scale livestock vaccination! Innovation Platforms (IPs) are multi-stakeholder coordination mechanisms that bring together breeders, private veterinarians, public veterinary services, vaccine producers, local leaders, and financial institutions to jointly plan, implement, and monitor livestock vaccination campaigns. They improve communication, trust, and coordination across the vaccine delivery chain, leading to higher vaccination coverage, better disease control, and more productive livestock systems.
Growing Resilient Wheat, Even in the Hottest Seasons. The technology of "Expanded Production of Irrigated Wheat" is crucial due to the impact of heat stress on traditional wheat cultivation in the hot rainy seasons of Sub-Saharan Africa. The innovative approach involves growing wheat during the cool season (winter production) to circumvent heat-related crop damage. However, this necessitates the implementation of irrigation systems due to limited precipitation. The technology enables stable, high wheat grain yields and quality, promoting a climate-resilient food value chain and allowing wheat cultivation in non-traditional dryland areas. Successful implementation not only advances self-sufficiency but also reduces the need for expensive wheat imports in various key regions of Africa.
Aquaculture and Crops system for better yield This technology brings fish farming and crop growing together in a smart way. It helps make more food for households by using pond water for plants and plant leftovers for fish. This means less money spent on fish food and more crops from the fields. It's a big help for small and big farms, making them better at growing food and making money. This technology is a game-changer for farming and making sure there's enough food for everyone.