Informal stakeholder consultation on agriculture research in Africa

Prof. Monty JONES (FARA)

20-22 March 2012. Brussels, organized by the European Commission Directorate General for Development and Cooperation - DG DEVCO. Improving the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation with African agricultural knowledge organisations: Informal stakeholder consultation.

In order to improve the quality and effectiveness of development cooperation with African continental and sub-regional agricultural knowledge organisations, the European Commission organized an informal stakeholders consultation which brought together representatives of African agricultural knowledge organisations, of the Development Partners, and EC/EU experts.

Dan KISAUZI & Silim Mohamed NAHDY
(AFAAS) ; Paco SEREME & Harold
ROY MACAULEY (CORAF) ;
David NIELSON (World Bank)

David NIELSON, Melissa BROWN, Bremala
MALLI & Juergen ANTHOFER (WB)

The objectives of this meeting were to:

• share experiences of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education on how these organisations have contributed to the objectives of the Comprehensive African Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) under the Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP);



Carolyn GLYNN & Philip CHIVERTON
(Swedish University of Agricultural 
Sciences)
Nicoliene OUDWATER 
(AgriCulture ETC Foundation)

• dialogue with representatives of African continental and sub-regional organisations, Development Partners organisations, and EC/EU experts on the key lessons learnt through such processes – what worked well and less well and why;
• looking to the future, discuss how such processes might continue to be strengthened into the future and scaled up where appropriate, share views of African organisations on their future role in their mandate areas and discuss this with representatives of the Development Partners organisations and EC/EU experts.

The outcomes were:

Aissetou Drame YAYE (ANAFE), Adipala
EKWAME (RUFORUM), Ramadjita TABO
& Adewale ADEKUNLE (FARA)

• raised awareness of the value of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education in support to the objectives of CAADP;
• shared experience on key initiatives of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education to advance African agriculture;



Patrick TAWONEZVI & Mwape
BWANALI (CCARDESA)

• deepen understanding of the challenges and opportunities of African continental and sub-regional leading organizations linked to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education to support the objectives of CAADP;
• recommendations made to donors and Development Partners organisations on how to increase effectiveness of their support to agricultural research, advisory services, and tertiary agricultural education in support to the objectives of CAADP.

Training program on agribusiness incubation for SSA

Dr Ralph von Kaufmann, Technical Coordinator,
UniBRAIN-FARA, in a discussion with Dr Dar and others

21-24 November. Aiming to promote agribusiness ventures in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) through value-chain based agribusiness incubators, ICRISAT’s Agri-Business Incubation (ABI) program under its
Agribusiness Innovation Platform (AIP) organized a training program on “Strengthening the capacity of UniBRAIN – Agribusiness Innovation Incubation Consortia (AIIC) members” at ICRISAT-Patancheru.

The training program primarily aimed to strengthen the capacity of AIIC members in incubator planning and management, in view of UniBRAIN’s plan to set up an African Business Incubators Network (AFBIN) similar to the Network of Indian Agri Business Incubators (NIABI) of India. The training was focused on incubator management, planning for incubation operations, client selection, setting up systems and processes, and other key aspects of setting up successful business incubators to promote entrepreneurship in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU)

Twenty six participants from the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), Universities, Business and Research in Agricultural Innovation (UniBRAIN), Pan African Agribusiness and Agro Industry Consortium (PanAAC), Agro forestry and Natural Resources Education (ANAFE), Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in East and Central Africa (ASARECA), Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain pour la Recherche et le Développement Agricoles (CORAF) and SADC joined the training program at Patancheru, which had 30 resource persons from infoDev, ISBA, STC, Trec-STEP, Technopark, Villgro, etc. who provided and shared their vast and rich experiences in agriculture and agribusiness.

The training was continued at the Business Planning and Development (BPD) units of the Tamil Nadu Agricultural University (TNAU), Coimbatore and Ooty.

Background
UniBRAIN is a program of FARA supported by the Royal Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs (DANIDA). It is facilitated by a team of partner institutions comprising FARA Networking Support Function for Capacity Strengthening (FARA-NSF4) and its associated sub-regional organizations – ASARECA, CORAF, Centre for Coordinating Agricultural Research and Development in Southern Africa
(CCARDESA), African Network for Agriculture, ANAFE, PanAAC, and ICRISAT Agri-Business Incubator (ABI).

Improving Post-Harvest Quality and Packaging of Rice, Sorghum/Millet and Cassava Products to enhance Marketability in West Africa

19/04/2011. Twenty women rice processors, mainly drawn from the Bolgatanga Municipality and Kassena-Nankana East District of the Upper East Region, have attended a three-day training workshop to broaden their knowledge on improved rice post-harvest technologies.

The project under which the training was organised was dubbed,; "The project under which the training was organised was dubbed,; "Improving Post-Harvest Quality and Packaging of Rice, Sorghum/Millet and Cassava Products to enhance Marketability in West Africa."

It was as a result of an agreement signed in June 2009, between the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Conseil Ouest et Centre Africain Pour La Recherche et Le Developpement Agricoles (CORAF) and the West and Central African Council for Agric Research and Development (WECARD), based in Senegal, to initiate six projects when there was a food crisis and the hiking food prices all over West Africa.


Project Target Countries 
• Rice: Senegal, Mali, Liberia, Ghana and Nigeria
• Sorghum/Millet: Senegal, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Nigeria
• Cassava: Ghana, Nigeria, Benin and Togo


These projects were to be undertaken under the framework of the Emergency Global Food Security Initiative, with the aim of seeking to mobilise the strengths, expertise and resources for post-harvest technology development and transfer in West Africa, to demonstrate appropriate post-harvest technologies for adoption.

During the training, the participants were taken through rice primary post-harvest operations such as harvesting, bulking, threshing, winnowing, and drying, while under the secondary post-harvest operations, storage, par-boiling, drying and milling were also discussed.

Gestion des systèmes post-récoltes en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre

24 au 27 Mai 2010. Cotonou, Benin. 2ème Semaine Scientifique de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre. Gestion des systèmes post-récoltes des produits végétaux, animaux et halieutiques pour l'amélioration de la productivité, de la compétitivité des marchés agricoles en Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre, c'est autour de ce thème central que les scientifiques de la sous région et leurs partenaires ont échangé du Pendant quatre jours, les participants ont fait des propositions pratiques et novatrices dans la recherche de solutions intégrées pour la réduction des contraintes post-récoltes.

28 au 29 Mai 2010. Cotonou, Benin. 9ème Assemblée Générale du CORAF/WECARD. Les acteurs et partenaires du CORAF/WECARD se sont réunis du pour la 9ème session ordinaire de l'Assemblée Générale. Les travaux ont permis d'éxaminer le rapport moral du Conseil d'Administration, le rapport d'activités du CORAF/WECARD de Juin 2008 à Mai 2010, d'adopter des documents statutaires et de renouveler les membres du Conseil d'Administration.


Des technologies novatrices et des stratégies appropriées devraient être élaborées pour promouvoir l'accès des grands et petits transformateurs aux prototypes de transformation modernes, ont-ils souligné.

Les nombreuses études réalisées dans la sous-région au cours des dix dernières années ont révélé de manière pertinente la nécessité de mettre l'accent sur les technologies et les techniques post-récoltes pour que l'agriculture joue convenablement sa partition, en tant que moteur de croissance économique.

Selon des études récentes, les pertes post-récoltes atteignent en Afrique de l'Ouest et du centre, plus de 30 pc de la production et celles relatives uniquement à la filière-riz, avoisinent parfois 2,3 milliards FCFA.

Initiée par le Conseil ouest-et-centre africain pour la recherche et le développement agricoles (CORAF), la deuxième semaine scientifique agricole de l'Afrique de l'Ouest et du centre se veut un cadre d'échanges sur les innovations agricoles, afin d'accroître la sensibilité des participants et du public sur la problématique des systèmes de post-récolte.


References: 

Press release CORAF
Pana 29/05/2010 Afrique: Plaidoyer pour une gestion efficace des systèmes post-récolte
REWMI 05/06/2010 Agriculture : Réflexions transversales à Cotonou

Nouvelle Expression 03/06 Les progrès sur les recherches de la gestion après récoltes dévoilés

Status of postgraduate training in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (CORAF region)

26 December, 2009. Status Report by Adama Traore on Status of postgraduate training in the livestock sector in West and Central Africa (CORAF region) and priorities for ILRI’s support

Research-based capacity strengthening is one of the priority activities of the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI). The mission of ILRI’s Capacity Strengthening Unit (CaSt) is to strengthen the capacity of the livestock research and development community to contribute to the overall mandate of ILRI in achieving livestock-mediated poverty alleviation. The purpose of Cast is to strengthen the capacity of ILRI’s partners to apply their skills and resources to accomplish their goals, satisfy stakeholders’ needs and improve performance and impact.

The overall purpose of this study was to identify areas for collaborative action to build the capacity of learning institutes in the region.

Given the different stages of development of the various universities, it may also be necessary to initiate some carefully selected national level activities to complement the regional undertakings. ILRI will make every effort to facilitate and support the national and regional initiatives in strengthening the capacities of the universities especially the postgraduate research and training in the region.

Reference:
Download the paper

FP7 Info Days

18 September. The DG RTD of the European Commission has published end of July 2009 the Call FP7-AFRICA-2010 which is implemented jointly by the Themes: ‘Health’, ‘Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, and Biotechnology’ and ‘Environment'. This call will fund projects aimed at enhancing African socio-economic development and capacity building.

In order to promote FP7-AFRICA-2010, sub-regional Info Days were organized in Accra, Dakar and Lusaka, simultaneously with the info day in Brussels on 18/09.

The meeting at FARA Accra gathered some 17 participants from Ghana (mainly research scientists and the meeting at CORAF Dakar gathered

The participants of both meetings watched the video of EU Commissioner Dr. Potočnik on YouTube.

Wisdom Amoa-Awua of the Food Research Institute/Ghana shared his experience about collaborating in a FP7 proposal. The Food Research Institute of the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) is part of the consortium of a promising FP7 project called: African Food Tradition Revisited by Research (KBBE-2009-2-3-02).

References:
FP7 Africa Call.

Related FARA blog postings:
Recent visit of EU Commissioner for Science and Research Janez Potočnik to Ethiopia and Kenya AU honours first African women scientific research...
EU Commissioner Potočnik gives a boost to the EU-Africa...
Announcement: FP7 Africa Call Information days

Call for expressions of interest Agricultural Biodiversity for Africa

August 19, 2009. The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), in partnership with its four sub-Regional Organizations (CORAF/WECARD, ASARECA SADC-FANR, NASRO), and Bioversity International will be organizing a conference on agricultural biodiversity in Africa, back-to-back with the Africa Science Week and FARA General Assembly to be held in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso on the 19-24th July 2010

The overall goal of the conference is to increase awareness, raise the appeal and generate support for research and development in relation to agricultural biodiversity for development in Africa. The conference will facilitate the sharing of innovative ideas in areas of agricultural biodiversity conservation and use science, research and development in Africa. It will also provide an opportunity to bring the agricultural biodiversity research community together to exchange experiences and lessons learnt, establish linkages and foster post-conference networking.

Download the Conference Concept Note and Draft Programme

Reference:

Platform for Agrobiodiversity Research 19/08 Revealing the Appeal and Potential of Agricultural Biodiversity for Africa: Status, Trends and Outlook for Future” Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 19-24th July 2010

Reaction of a participant at the RAILS side event at IAALD

Click to Play

Issel Ould Abdatt Centre national d'élevage et de recherches vétérinaires. CNERV. Directeur General adjoint, Nouakchott Mauritanie gives his impression about his attendance at the RAILS Side-event at the 2nd IAALD Africa Chapter Conference on the theme Towards Opening Access to Information & Knowledge in the Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Africa.

He explains what the RAILS programme does in Mauritania and how the workshop has clarified the expectations and what should be done.

Participants to the RAILS side event at IAALD

12-13 July 2009. RAILS Side-event at the 2nd IAALD Africa Chapter Conference on the theme ‘Towards Opening Access to Information & Knowledge in the Agricultural Sciences and Technology in Africa’.

Participants:

JANVIER Nkunzebose
Institut Des Sciences Agronomiques du Burundi (ISABU),
Bujumbura Burundi.

Rachel Rege
Kenya Agricultural Research Institute (KARI), Assistant Director, Information Documentation Services Nairobi.Kenya

MAQALIKA MATSEPE
Agricultural Information Services Ministry Of Agriculture And Food Security, Senior Agricultural Information Officer, Lesotho

Mohammed Sannoh

Senior Communications Officer, SLARI, National Agricultural Research Coordinating CouncilFreetown - Liberia
Francois Stepman
Communications Expert

FARA

Jacqueline Nyagahima

ASARECA

Uganda

Paula Pimentel
Agricultural Research Institute of Mozambique (IIAM),Researcher - Technology Transfer And Information Systems DirectorateMaputo, Mozambique

Jacky Nnam
Knowledge Sharing Officer

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa.
Accra- Ghana
Keven Nancy Principal OfficerResearch and DevelopmentSeychelles Agricultural Agency Republic of Seychelles

Ifidon Ohiomoba PSTAD OfficerForum for Agric Research in Africa. Ghana

Sostino Mocumbe Communications Officer Institute of Agricultural Research of Mozambique Maputo, Mozambique

Abdoulaye Aziz BANGOURA
IRAGResponsable Information Scientifique & TechniqueConakry - Guinee

Francine Rasolofonirina
Ministry of Agriculture-Livestock and fisheries -Head, Extension Service and Farmer's Training DepartmentDirectorate of Extension Service and Farmer's Support Ministry of Agriculture, Livestock and FisheryAntananarivo - Madagascar

Richard AWAH NCHE
Director, Department of Communication and Documentation,Institute of Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD),Yaounde - Republic of Cameroun

Issel Ould Abdatt
Centre national d'élevage et de recherches vétérinaires. CNERV. Directeur General adjoint. Nouakchott Mauritanie

Dady Demby

Forum for Agric Research in Africa. RAILS Program OfficerAccra- Ghana

Hadiza Gabey
INRAN, Chef De La Division Information. Valorisation et Documentation. Niger, Niamey

Justin Chisenga
Information Management SpecialistFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations – FAO - Regional Office for AfricaAccra, Ghana

Jocelin Makoko
INERA-Chef deDivision Biométrie & Informatique Président du Comité National de Pilotage (CNP) du Réseau Régional de l'Information Agricole (RAIN ) RD Congo

Claudine Umukazi
Institut des Sciences Agronomiques du Rwanda (ISAR)

Kigali Rwanda

KONE Yékéminan Anatole
Information/Communication Manager

CORAF/WECARDDakar - Senegal

Myra Wopereis
Forum for Agric Research in Africa. Director, Access to Knowledge and TechnologyAccra- Ghana

Kedro Diomande
Centre national de recherche agronomique, directeur des systemes d'informationAbidjan Cote-d’ Ivoire

Emmanuel Mbembe
Chef de service de la Communication et de la Vulgarisation,
Délégation Générale à la Recherche Scientifique et Technologique/Centre National de Documentation et d’Information Scientifique et Technique ( CNDIST),
Congo-Brazzaville

Frank W Dulle
Sokoine University of Agriculture,P.O.Biox 3158, Chuo kikuu,Morogoro-Tanzania.

Krishan Bheerninck
Regional Information, Communication and Training Officer,Implementation & Coordination of Agricultural Research & Training(ICART) projectFood, Agriculture and Natural Resources (FANR) DirectorateSADC Secretariat, GaboroneGaborone, Botswana

Goliath Leon Mwale
ZARI Lusaka, Zambia.

Davy Simumba
Zambia Agriculture Research Institute -Mount Makulu Central Research StationChilanga - Zambia

Joel Sam
Deputy Director
CSIR-INSTIAccra-Ghana

AHLAM ISMAIL MUSA
Agricultural Research Corporation (ARC), Central Library,Head Librarian And Manager Agris Resource Centre Of The Sudan,Agricultural Research Corporation (Arc)Sudan

Rafaa Ashamallah Ghobrial
Information Research Assistant Professor Head of Information Services and Systems Documentation and Information Centre National Centre for Research Ministry of Science and TechnologyKhartoum, Sudan

RASOANINDRAINY Andrianjafy
CAETIC-IT & Project Management specialistAdministratorCAETIC DevelopmentAntananarivo, Madagascar

Grace Kamau
Head - InfocentreInternational Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)Nairobi Kenya