It was a great pleasure to welcome the first group of Nigerians to UFV on Monday (31st) (TETfund). One of 71 Nigerian students doing Master’s courses remotely under Agricultural Research and Innovation Fellowship for Africa (ARIFA). Dr. Demetrius David da Silva greeted the students and recalled the University’s history, emphasizing its commitment to offering international students “the best in our graduate programs.”
As the pioneer of ARIFA in Brazil, UFV has recently approached other Brazilian higher education institutions to join the program, allowing Nigerians to study at UFG, UFLA, UNESP, and UNIFEI presently.
Nneka Vivian Iduu, a Master’s student in the subject of Agricultural Microbiology, is one of the Program’s original participants. She has previously finished three academic semesters of graduate courses at UFV via distance learning, and she arrived at the Viçosa campus last week to meet with the institution’s researchers and to make use of all of the facilities available.
The student, speaking on behalf of the Nigerians in the program, stated that her time at the university had greatly aided her studying. She praised the opportunity to work at UFV and finally meet everyone participating in the Program’s activities as well as the University’s research facilities in person. Nneka acknowledged her adviser, Professor Hilário Cuqueto Mantovani, as well as the Director of International Relations, Vladimir Di Iorio, and the UFV Ambassadors students.
In addition, the Master’s student wishes that more graduate students in her nation have the opportunity to participate in this important program. Arthur Wakim Enrici, a biochemistry student and UFV Ambassador, said the goal is to best support postgraduate students during their stays at the university, aiding with their doubts, facilitating integration and sharing of cultural and academic experiences. His team of ambassadors is “absolutely willing” to “present the best of the University and Brazil”, he reminded them due to the covid-19 pandemic.
Vladimir Di Iorio, Director of International Relations and member of the partnership’s Governance Committee, says the UFV program has been a success despite the hurdles provided by the covid-19 pandemic.
Other groups of Nigerian Masters students are scheduled to join the University in the near future.
Raul Narciso Guedes, Dean of Research and Graduate Studies (PPG), and Murilo Zerbini, PPG special adviser and ARIFA Brazil Governance Committee delegate, also attended the reception.
They emphasized the value of collaboration with FARA and TETfund in internationalizing UFV postgraduate programs and developing research in Africa and Brazil.
FARA, the apex continental organization coordinating and advocating for agricultural research for development in Africa, is set to launch and facilitate FAO’s request to develop a strategy to provide guidance, coherence, and alignment for impact at the country level through better use of science and innovation.
The FAO has undertaken important steps to strengthen its work on science and innovation, including efforts to transform itself into a more innovative organization that is capable of assisting countries to scale up appropriate innovations based on science. The FAO Director-General has thus requested the development of a strategy to provide guidance, coherence, and alignment for impact at the country level through better use of science and innovation.
The Strategy will strengthen the use of science and innovation and will be a key tool for the implementation of the Strategic Framework (2022-31) and the SDG through science and innovation.
To have impact, the Strategy must respond to the challenges and needs of stakeholders by engaging them throughout its preparation process.
The specific objectives of these engagements are:
To identify science and innovation needs and gaps at regional and country levels.
To discuss innovation priorities and to broaden the common understanding of innovation.
To provide inputs for the development of the thematic priorities of the Strategy.
To identify how to strengthen FAO’s role on science policy and research at national and regional levels.
To identify priorities for partnerships.
FARA intends to launch and facilitate discussions among its constituents, partners, donors, and networks. You are warmly invited to actively participate in discussing pertinent questions which will be posted on the FARANet.
Your views will be collated and discussed from Wednesday, Jan 26th to Sunday, Feb 7th and then feedback summarised for further consultation and validation meeting on 15th or 16th February 2022
The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is the apex continental organization coordinating and advocating for agricultural research for development. FARA is the designated technical Institution of the African Union Commission and African Union Development Agency on matters concerning agriculture science, technology and innovation.
We may all have organized virtual learning sessions, but how many of us have organized effective sessions in the agricultural systems setting? Well, this calls for a deeper reflection. I recently participated in the #KM4AgDChallenge which I believe fits the description of an effective learning program.
A novice in the field of Knowledge Management: Finding a new family
In August 2021, I got an opportunity from the African Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services to participate in the Knowledge Management for Agricultural development Challenge. Organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), AFAAS, CCARDESA, CORAF, ASARECA, in cooperation with the Knowledge for Development Partnership (K4DP) and partners YPARD and GFAR, the challenge aimed at building appropriate capacities, establishing communities of practice for Knowledge Management, and strengthening mechanisms for knowledge generation to accelerate the achievement of the CAADP Malabo goals by 2025 and the SDGs by 2030. The maiden version was attended by 28 participants (10 women, 18 men) from 22 countries, and over 20 experienced facilitators globally sourced.
Above: Participants in the 2021 KM4AgD Challenge
Joining this challenge was an eye opener for me. I was one of the many people who could not explicitly differentiate between information and knowledge; and who did not care about the relevance of knowledge management in the growth of individuals and organizations, nor elucidate the difference between tacit and explicit knowledge. If anyone asked me that question again, my response would be different-courtesy of the several KM essential sessions delivered by the top authorities in the KM space globally that I participated in. I am loving this new field.
Content and key outputs of the Challenge:
Categorized under three major components, the content revolved around essentials of knowledge management, advanced knowledge management and knowledge societies. Another outstanding aspect was when we were tasked to identify knowledge challenges in agriculture, develop concepts, organize and deliver knowledge cafés. The execution process of bringing different people together virtually to work on a common task was amazing-despite the busy schedules. This was crowned with a conference to share outputs from the 3 months challenge. In general, the outputs were 28 KM strategies for different organizations, 20 country policy briefs and statements on Knowledge Management, and 10 thematic policy briefs derived from the knowledge cafes, now christened as the KM for Agricultural development Agenda. The output around networking and friendships may be difficult to quantify, but it was overwhelming..
A mix of methodologies: learning, friendship and fun
According to the Collins English dictionary, camaraderie is a feeling of trust and friendship among a group of people who have usually known each other for a long time or gone through some kind of experience together. This is what I felt being part of the KM4AgDChallenge family.
Some of the key tenets of a family are togetherness, compassion, trust, friendship. The KM4AgD Challenge team fit that description. The Lead facilitators Dr Andreas Brandner and Mr Benjamin Abugri and guest speakers were friendly and used delivery approaches that were conducive for adult learners. Despite the virtual nature of the course, it felt as if we were together in one physical classroom.
The blend of methodologies including simulation-group work, follow ups, WhatsApp reminders, videos, all made learning easy. The art walk during the conference cannot be forgotten. If I missed a session, I would be sure to find it in the class folder, or, even before checking the folder, I would contact the trainers or fellow participants for a quick brief-which they gladly did.
Above: Dr Andreas sharing light moments with some of the participants from Uganda Elizabeth Asiimwe (Left) and Charles Masereka (right).
These flexible methodologies complemented by sharing light moments, celebrating one another were my social highlights which contributed a lot to learning. Any chance of any members meeting could not go unnoticed-whether it was Dr Andreas meeting with some participants at a conference in the Southern part of Africa, Mr Benjamin meeting with participants in related avenue in Uganda, or fellow participants meeting at a conference in Benin, Uganda, we would not miss the happy ‘selfies’ on the class WhatsApp group. What a great family!
Staying connected…
At the end of the challenge, participants were inaugurated in the Community of Practice for Knowledge Management. I am overjoyed that this high energy will continue. Each of the participants was unique and has a lot to offer.
As I write this, I am on a process to recover from the jetlag, having arrived this morning from the #KM4AgChallenge conference in Ghana. It was worth it! The intellectual exchanges, the interaction, the hospitality by our Ghanaian hosts, the short trips in Accra are much appreciated. Special thanks to the FARA Executive Director Dr Yemi Akinbamijo for the words of wisdom. He challenged us to apply the learnings and be the best knowledge managers which is a major component of agricultural development in Africa. ‘‘If you rest, you rust’’ remarked Dr Akinbamijo.
A section of participants and organizers during the KM4AgDChallenge Conference in Accra, Ghana
Highlights of the training and conference can be seen at the hashtag #KM4AgDChallenge
The KM4AgD Challenge is an integrated, strategic, educational and transformational long-term initiative to advance sustainable agricultural knowledge societies, linked with research to create scientific substance, evidence and outreach for Africa AR4D. It will be a lighthouse project for knowledge-based development in AR4D in Africa, and will take place annually in a growing number of countries. Please look out for the next opportunity!
Gratitude
Thanks to AFAAS, FARA, CCARDESA, ASARECA, CORAF, KDP and partners GFAR, YPARD for organizing the challenge. Special appreciation to AFAAS, the Uganda Forum for Agricultural Advisory Services (UFAAS), and GREAT, Makerere University for enabling me to participate.
We did it! Group 4 teammates-Marc Bappa from Cameroon, Phidel Hazel Arunga from Kenya, Zainab Abdulai from Ghana and Lorato Bailang from Botswana-we made it! The Uganda team-Victoria Mbigidde and Charles Masereka.
As emphasized by all the speakers at the conference, this maiden challenge was just the beginning of the engagement with Knowledge Management. Upwards!
Above (L): Mr Benjamin Abugri and Elizabeth meet in Kampala during the FARA-AFAAS meeting on interoperability of KM and MEL systems; (R): Elizabeth and fellow participant Marc Bappa from Cameroon meet in Kampala during the Africa-wide Agricultural Extension Week co-organized by AFAAS.
Above: Dr Andreas (C) meets with participants under CCARDESA in Johannesburg, South Africa.
Above: Dr Andreas with Elizabeth (L) in Kampala, and Benjamin (R) in Accra
For inquiries about the KM4AgD Challenge, please contact:
The 5th of December is the 2021 World Soil Day, this year’s theme is “Halt Soil Salinization and Boost Soil Productivity”. In Africa, 50% of the irrigated lands have different levels of salinization problems, although only 6% of our agricultural lands are irrigated. Notwithstanding the growth in demand for food and fiber, and increase in intensification models; Africa must prepare to prevent salinization by using appropriate irrigation techniques.
In Africa, Our Soil is Our life. It is the richest resource we own; it is our primary production asset. A household with land can never be labeled as poor because its land could be made to produce sustenance and wealth for the household. The Soil is a bundle of life; a teaspoon contains trillions of individual microbial lives amidst organic and mineral matter. Our Soil is the purifier of our environment, the source and sink of numerous soil nutrients. It is one resource we will use to sink carbon and limit the destruction of climate change, an affliction we are suffering from when others are the cause.
It is noteworthy that 60% of the available arable land in the world is in Africa. I guessed that this is one positive thing about Africa, one resource our continent could be proud of holding in trust for the world to feed its teeming population. It then can position Africa and its posterity for health and wealth. Alas! While the world looks on, the most treasured asset of Africa is getting lost to land degradation! The frightening statistics indicated that erosion takes away 50 million tons of topsoil per year. Fertility degradation from nutrient mining makes 27% of the arable Soil infertile and largely unproductive.
Africa needs to wake up to this reality and salvage itself from the upcoming food slavery by halting its land degradation. Africa leaders cannot afford to play the politics of silence to this menace; neither can the farmers nor other land users lend an unconcerned posture. Our platform is collapsing, and we are the only one that can mend it and mend it well.
The first step to managing Africa soil is to accept the fact that our soils are inherently fragile and must be handled carefully to sustain long-term food and fiber production. Current land-use practices have shown that the majority in Africa are oblivious of this scientific truth and its long-term implication on the overall wellbeing of our society. We urgently need coherent policies and guidelines on land use and management of the different landscapes. We need to recommend and enforce the best practices in land clearing and tillage practices for agriculture at all levels. Land capability assessment needs to be done, to prevent farming on marginal soils or the use of fertile soils for other construction purposes; both are counterproductive.
Africa needs to rise to this challenge and develop an Africa-owned and Africa-driven approach to solve this problem. At the instance of the Africa Union Commission, FARA is working with all stakeholders in Africa agriculture to develop the Soil Initiative for Africa (SIA) to address land degradation in Africa. The SIA will engage all in co-creation and implementation of the solutions. It will give attention to the development of appropriate policies and institutional frameworks to stop the pace of soil degradation at all levels of governance and societal order in Africa. It will scale up existing technologies as well as facilitate the development of new technologies to respond to emerging issues. The capacity issues will be addressed headlong using holistic approaches. The quagmire of the soil information system will be addressed by building on all existing systems and ensuring that Africa owns an upgradable system that meets the needs of all using the best ICT facilities. Effective soil knowledge management will be developed including a dashboard that informs necessary actions. The SIA will embrace all production systems ranging from the agroecology social movement to the integrated soil fertility management and the conventional practices using mineral fertilizer.
The cooperation of all is needed to ensure the success of the soil Initiative for Africa. Let’s pull together and deliver together to halt the degradation and start the restoration of the already degraded Africa soil.
Indigenous agricultural practices adopted by locals largely depend on traditional knowledge. Such knowledge is common in the agricultural system to preserve the ecosystem and biodiversity. Traditional knowledge has proven to be useful in sustainable food production and the support of human and animal health. Farmers possess a vast pool of indigenous knowledge in agricultural management which reduces external input dependency by utilizing various renewable farm resources through agricultural practices. Such practices have a bearing on rural development and nature conservation. They contribute to maintaining the ecosystem of the particular area and thus lead to sustainable use of biodiversity conservation. However, such indigenous knowledge is not systematically recorded; therefore, it is not easily accessible to agricultural researchers. Yet these are valuable practices worth considering in farmer-to-farmer training or local technology transfer.
As the Lead of Green Agro Invest, I am committed to building the capacity of the rural smallholder farms especially the young people. This is our contribution to the development of the food system by creating jobs and wealth through the Seed for Food (SFF) programs initiative by Green Agro Invest in partnership with YPARD Ghana and Footprints Bridge International (F-BRIDGE).
In Ghana, several efforts have been made to maximize the potential of the agricultural sector as an engine for industrial growth. The Green Agro Invest, a social enterprise has recognized through its flagship program, Seed for Food (SFF) that enhanced agricultural performance is key to growth and poverty reduction through its direct impact on:
i. Job creation and increased opportunities, especially for women and young people,
ii. Food security and improved nutrition, and
iii. Strengthening resilience for knowledge managements for agriculture development (KM4AgD)
The objective of this activity is to enable young agripreneurs, university students, and young people in general within the rural communities to get familiar with and get connected with the different business support services available for transforming their subsistence operations into commercially viable enterprises through integrated knowledge management for agriculture developments (KM4AgD). It is also aimed at enabling the youth to learn best practices and incubation models that can be replicated in their respective communities, homes, backyard farming in building a resilience urban farming. The Centre of excellence is stationed at Ho in the Volta Region of Ghana.
The program also involves the training of rural farmers and the creation of tools that will contribute to the designing of policies that maintain biodiversity. The team is passionate about working to change young people’s minds about indigenous agriculture through agribusiness education and Knowledge Management for Agriculture Development (KM4AgD) Tools. Agribusiness education is one of the most important aspects which could be leveraged for the transfer of important ethics in the sector. Other important features of the program are peer-to-peer mentoring and the capitalization of the experiences of rural farmers- particularly the young for the creation of jobs. Hence, it can preserve both indigenous knowledge and biodiversity for achieving sustainable development.
My Experience in the KM4AgD Challenge
The Andreas Brandner presentation is an eye-opener for strengthening the level of tools in leverage for designing key KM processes capturing, communication, and dissemination which at the hearts of Green Agro Invest in using these tools to catalyze its training to promote sustainable agriculture and thriving agribusiness through research and technology development for jobs creation.
Erie Tamale “said KM is a powerhouse of all implementation, hence have a sustainable system available that demonstrate the need for knowledge capturing experience for rural farmers with effective extension and other support services to farmers, processors, and traders for improved livelihood in our quest in achieving our mission.
I believe that his presentation and practical experience sharing from the facilitators give us hope that we are on track, hence a quote from Andrianjafy Rosa on how to make a communities of practices fly:
from AFAAS – “Pursuing a clear purpose is critical if a KM practitioners is keen on reaching the last mile to impacts and generating income and Livelihood for sustainable development” This statement sum up to my hearts in delivering in our mandate at Green Agro Invest and replica to other organization that I am working for as well.
It was very insightful and informative through KM4AgD Challenge which I have been selected to be part of the participants hence one-week training so far that will become a lighthouse for forward-looking and innovation in Knowledge Management for Agricultural Developments (KM4AgD) value chain.
The highlight from this first edition of KM4AgD Challenge organized by FARA and its partners (AFAAS, ASARECA, CCARDESA, CORAF, YPARD & K4DP) currently ongoing program helps me to take into account agricultural and rural transformation, the expansion of digitalization and technologies, new economic models and knowledge managements developments that can create attractive employment and business opportunities for youth.
The Green Agro Invest is open to partnership with organizations, institutions, and individuals concerned with the generation of innovative finance to build a knowledge developments Hub and greenhouses within the community. The ultimate is to strengthen the Centre of excellence through training sessions, agricultural research, and Knowledge Management for Agriculture Developments (KM4AgD) education and agribusiness incubation models programs. With this more young people will be empowered to contribute to a resilient agri-food system in conformity to climate-smart and urban farming developments.
The generation of quality jobs as part of regional and national economic growth and development process is central to ensuring sustainable and inclusive growth. As part of efforts to support job creation for the ever-increasing youth population, many countries in the Sub-Saharan regions of Africa have implemented youth employment programmes over the past years. In the year 2020, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), together with its country partners in Ghana, Benin, Malawi and Ethiopia, used mixed methods research designs to assess the effectiveness of youth employment initiatives that have been implemented over the last two decades in creating sustainable jobs. The research identified a total of 47 major initiatives (comprising 20 youth-centered and 27 general initiatives). Figure 1 shows the distribution of the 47 initiatives based on International Labour Organization’s classifications[1].
Figure 1. Distribution of youth employment initiatives
[1] (i) Employment services – such as providing information on labour market, counselling, job search services and placement;
(ii) Skill development training programmes -including those that provide adult literacy training, off and on the job training and financial incentives for training;
(iii) Employment creation programmes – including those that offer wage subsidies, public work employment of short duration, self- employment programmes and entrepreneurship development activities; and
(iv) Integrated programme – that involves a mixture of the other interventions.
The research identified key success factors concerning the design, implementation structure, partnership, coverage and financing mechanisms that are worth considering in the design of future youth employment initiatives. They included:
promotion of skill development youth employment programmes that factor youth development challenges in the design of the initiatives by addressing youth specific issues such as provision of tailored training and capacity building, as well as access to resources (for example land, technologies, startup capital and opportunities to acquire work experience); and
integration of value chain approach in developing agricultural-based youth employment initiatives.
The research findings further showed that factors such as age, interest in agricultural related enterprises, trade and commerce, and artisanal enterprises influenced participation in the youth employment programmes. Also, factors such as proximity of youth training centers, jobs in agricultural value chains, and trade and commerce led to the creation of sustainable occupations for the participants who engaged in them.
Youth employment initiatives that take the above-mentioned factors into consideration in their design have huge potentials for job creation. However, the jobs created will have better chances of sustainability if they are implemented together with these five propositions:
Design of monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure continuous assessment of progress, lesson leaning and adjustments when needed. This will also provide data to inform decisions.
Development of guidance and counseling systems to support the youth in making informed career choices and decisions.
Establishment of a coherent coordination mechanism among implementing partners.
Integration of holistic capacity building facilities, particularly in rural areas.
Creation of innovative funding mechanisms to support sustainable implementation of youth employment initiatives.
