We Are Half-Way There.....

In my last blog (http://papauzom.blogspot.com/2011/06/well-done-but.html) I lauded the efforts of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (B&MGF) in sponsoring a study by the National Research Council (http://www.nap.edu) on how knowledge from physics, chemistry, electrical engineering, materials science, remote sensing and computer science can lead to innovations with potential to solve the problems of poverty and food insecurity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA). I argued that if the findings of the study were to benefit Africa, the B&MGF should develop a program specifically dedicated to revamping agricultural research, education and training in Africa’s universities. When I checked back on the B&MGF website (http://www.gatesfoundation.org/grantseeker/Pages/default.aspx)  I found out to my pleasant surprise that an effort in the direction I suggested was already underway. In 2009, the B&MGF awarded $12,730,748 to the Regional Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) (http://www.ruforum.org) to work towards improved productivity and wealth creation in Eastern and Southern Africa by developing effective agricultural universities and producing a new cadre of high-performing university research, training and outreach.

My plea is that this noble venture should be expanded to cover the rest of sub-Saharan Africa. And, this is the approach that I suggest it should take.

RUFORUM, which has begun to extend it membership to universities in all regions of Africa, will be involved in the new exercise as the lessons learned in operating the existing program since 2009 will be invaluable. Partnering RUFORUM will be the United Nations University-Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) (http://www.unu.edu/inra). UNU-INRA is the only institution in Africa with UN recognition and support to develop and strengthen capacity for research, education and outreach (including policy formulation and decision making) that would lead to the reduction of poverty and food insecurity through the proper management of Africa’s natural resources.  As stated in its current Strategic Plan, the mission of UNU-INRA is to empower African universities and research institutions through capacity strengthening. This is in order to enable them conduct high quality research and produce well-trained, well-equipped and motivated individuals. The knowledge created and the capacity built should be useful in developing, adapting and disseminating technologies that promote efficient and sustainable use of the continent’s natural resources.

Providing valuable support to these two African organs will be the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities (APLU) of the United States (https://www.aplu.org) .Over the years, many of the Land Grant Universities in the United States have been involved in upgrading agricultural research and training in Africa. Three examples from my own country come readily to mind. With support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), three Land Grant Universities got the chance to promote the “Land Grant System” in the then three regions of Nigeria. Michigan State University worked with the University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Eastern Nigeria. The University of Wisconsin worked with the University of Ife (now the Obafemi Awolowo University) Ile-Ife, Western Nigeria while Kansas State University worked with the Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria in Northern Nigeria. At the Ahmadu Bello University, the team from Kansas State helped to create an “agricultural campus” made up of the Institute for Agricultural Research (IAR) with responsibility for agricultural research, the Faculty of Agriculture, with responsibility for teaching and the Agricultural Extension Research Liaison Service (AERLS) with responsibility for agricultural extension. Functioning as the “IAR Complex”, a Land Grant system was established where research, teaching and extension were undertaken by individuals that worked closely together.  In 1972, fresh out of a Land Grant university in the US, I was happy to be appointed to a 50/50 position as lecturer/research fellow at the complex. Although in recent times, poor governance has reduced the effectiveness of most Nigerian universities including the Ahmadu Bello University, the IAR-Complex has retained its structure and its effectiveness is attested to by the fact that agriculture is most productive in the mandate area of the IAR-complex. Today, this area has become the breadbasket of Nigeria.

I suggest that agents of RUFORUM, UNU-INRA and APLU should be empowered by the B&MGF to develop a program that would produce the future chemists, engineers, computer scientists, molecular biologists, physicists, socio-economists that will be the source of new scientific capabilities to address agricultural constraints in sub-Saharan Africa.