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African Universities have to demonstrate their relevance to the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Dev |
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“Universities will have to demonstrate their relevance to the CAADP process if they are to make any contribution to wealth creation at farm level.” These were part of the remarks made by Professor Monty Jones- Executive Secretary FARA/GFAR at the closing ceremony of the Ministerial conference on higher education in Agriculture in Africa at Speke Resort Hotel, Munyonyo in Kampala – Uganda.
CAADP is an Africa owned and Africa led initiative, a programme of the New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD). Overall, CAADP's goal is to eliminate hunger and reduce poverty through agriculture. To do this, African governments agreed to increase public investment in agriculture by a minimum of ten per cent of their national budgets and to raise agricultural productivity by at least six per cent. This is to be done through CAADP's strategic functions, regional and economic communities, national roundtables and four key Pillars.
The four CAADP Pillars are:
Pillar 1 - Extending the area under sustainable land management
Pillar 2 - Improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for market access
Pillar 3 - Increasing food supply and reducing hunger
Pillar 4 - Agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption
The African Union through NEPAD developed the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), as a framework to revitalize the agricultural sector. This is presently being implemented by the member governments to contribute to achieving 6% annual economic growth rate in the continent. CAADP Pillar four, for which FARA is the Lead Institution, focuses on strengthening agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption. Implementation of this and the other three pillars requires that the continent develops a strong science and technology capacity, both in terms of the infrastructure and human resource base. Hence capacity strengthening which is the main focus for Universities is a cross cutting component of Pillar IV.
It against this background that the Government of Uganda and the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity buiding in Agriculture- (RUFORUM) with support of national, regional and international partners hosted a regional meeting of African Ministers, Members of Parliament, senior officials responsible for education, science and technology, finance and planning, private sector, civil society and farmer representatives to discuss strengthening higher education in agriculture so that African universities and other education institutions could contribute more effectively to the CAADP processes. The conference aimed to consolidate recent developments by strengthening high level partnerships and policy support for re-engineering African higher education in agriculture and science.
The ministerial communiqué arising from this meeting committed to: - A renewed and vigorous emphasis by African governments to restore the quality of higher education in Agriculture.
- Increased investment in higher education in Agriculture in Africa and to be included as an integral agricultural development investment in CAADP country compacts and Medium Term Agricultural Productivity Programmes.
- Take urgent actions to develop an Africa wide action and investment plan for investing the African Union Commission and NEPAD-PCA strategies for strengthening capacity development in agriculture that are designed to support CAADP
- Ensure that ministries responsible for higher education, education institutions and other relevant actors create conducive and friendly environments for women and girls education and career advancement at all levels.
- Advocate for increased support and engagement of the African higher education networks in policymaking and programme implementation for agricultural training and research by the African Union Commission.
- Support local and international partnerships which address critical capacity needs for sustainable agricultural development. This includes partnerships amongst universities and engagement with communities, private sector and the African Diaspora’s.
Posting by Janet C Achora
Further readings
http://www.nepad-caadp.net/
www. ruforum.org
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