Did you know Africa is blessed with some crop species that thrives well in the continent and across the various regions within the sub-Saharan? These crop species are well adapted to the regions and will require minimal attention during its growing period with low external input use. A lot of talk about originality of crop species have spiked and large amounts of these crops are found in Africa and to bluff around them are their rich nutrition quality and quantity.
Fonio, known as African heritage grain or ancient grain is also considered as the continent’s oldest cultivated cereal, rich in nutrients. At last! It has become an “orphan Crop” as it has been replaced by rice in the household granary.
Fonio contains the right amounts of iron the daily body requires. It cultivation also require less labor, water and other external inputs compared to rice. Popular statistics showed that 2,497 liters of water is required to produce 1kg of rice, this quantity is in multiple of what is needed to produce equivalent quantity of Fonio.
The continental discussion to develop the “Africa Manifesto on Forgotten food is ongoing.
Africa possess a wide range of indigenous vegetables with huge nutrients to meet the need of its inhabitants. Jute mallow is an important shrub with loads of minerals and vitamins. It is eaten as vegetable soup. The centre of origin of this important vegetable is between Africa and Asia., although the largest variation in species is found in Africa.
Jute mallow grows very well across different agroecologies in Africa, it thrives very well under marginal conditions of nutrients and moisture. This vegetable contains high nutrient value as one cup of 87g could provide 32 calories. If you contrast the nutrient in jute mallow with the major exotic leafy vegetable such as cabbage (Brassica spp) and lettuce (Lactuca sativa) you will realize that the nutritional value of jute mallow is richer and higher.
Africa stand to gain higher and better nutritional advantages from our indigenous foods. All efforts should be on deck to improve these commodities and ensure their prominence in our food system.
Source: USDA FoodData Central, 2019.
The continental discussion to develop the “Africa Manifesto on Forgotten food is ongoing.
The breadfruit is an amazing food commodity; it should rather be called a “loaf of nutrients”, it contains huge amounts of vitamin, mineral and other essential elements. At last! it now falls within the forgotten food commodities. Bread fruit originates from New guinea and the Philippines; but it grows very well in most tropical areas of the world and thrives in wet ecologies of Africa.
The consumption is now limited, largely within the farming families as occasional snacks, hence its cultivation in little to no-existent and now serves as volunteer trees on farms. Research effort on the breadfruit is also very minimal leaving it in its very rudimentary state of development.
Improving this commodity has the potential to contribute to food and nutritional security in Africa.
The re-awakening of the potentials in forgotten foods as part of the global efforts of fostering sustainable food and nutritional security, gives the opportunity to develop a rich commodity like breadfruit to attains a prominent role in the food system.
The continental discussion to develop the “Africa Manifesto on Forgotten food is ongoing.
This year’s International Women’s Day is celebrated in such unprecedented times. As the continent and, more specifically, the agricultural community start to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic slowly, it presents an opportunity to build back better. However, to do that requires immediate, practical actions that choose to challenge the systemic issues that have prevented the full participation of women in Agricultural Research for Development (AR4D).
Women in Africa’s AR4D face multiple challenges, including systemic discrimination in accessing land, the burden of unpaid work, and lower wages compared to their male counterparts[1]. Women are also often excluded from leadership and decision-making positions at all levels. As such, on this year’s international women’s day, FARA urges the recognition of all women leaders in Africa’s AR4D and the women who play a significant role in the transformation of Africa’s food system.
Women produce 60-80 percent[2] of the world’s food; therefore, ensuring that women have opportunities to make food systems more sustainable increases the chances that such a transformation will succeed. Acknowledging women’s role, FARA continues to lobby regional, sub-regional, national, and global partners to increase investment in gender-smart approaches for advancing Science Technology and Innovations within Africa’s AR4D. FARA also advocates for increased gender equity at the policy and strategic level through the 2021 United Nations Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) “One Africa Voice dialogue” and CAADP Ex Pillar 4 program.
FARA is also advancing gender equity through AfDB’s Feed Africa’s strategy under the program: Technologies for African Agricultural Transformation (TAAT) Capacity Development and Outreach (CDTO) enabler compact. Notably, a holistic approach must be adopted to overcome challenges and improve women’s economic empowerment. While interventions would typically focus on impacts or outcomes, FARA advocates for practices that review the pathways between intervention and outcome. As such, these approaches have been applied in the TAAT CDTO framework.
Given that the 2016 Africa Human Development Report suggests that gender inequality costs Sub-Saharan Africa approximately 95 USD billion per year[3], investing in gender-smart approaches to agribusiness might lead to economic benefits. This is also observed by McKinsey Global Institute that 12-28 USD trillion[4] could be added to the global economy if women achieved parity with men in economic outcomes. Therefore, women leaders are an essential catalyst for change, as they serve to empower other women, raise awareness, and act as role models.
As FARA celebrates this year’s International Women’s Day, we recognize the vital contribution of women in Africa’s agricultural economy and look forward to carrying out joint action plans in increasing the participation of women in AR4D. This year’s International Women’s Day presents an opportunity to lobby partners towards challenging the systemic and institutional barriers that have prevented women from fully participating in Science, Technology and Innovations to enhance the continent’s food system.
[1] “Box 1: Progress towards Gender Equality in Wages, Where Do We Stand?,” Global Gender Gap Report 2020 (blog), accessed March 8, 2021, https://wef.ch/2rPU0C7.
[2] “What’s the Truth about the Role of Women in Agriculture Today?,” Water, Land and Ecosystems, February 28, 2018, https://wle.cgiar.org/thrive/big-questions/what-truth-about-role-women-agriculture-today.
[3] C. Leigh Anderson et al., “Economic Benefits of Empowering Women in Agriculture: Assumptions and Evidence,” The Journal of Development Studies 57, no. 2 (February 1, 2021): 193–208, https://doi.org/10.1080/00220388.2020.1769071.
By: Alice E. Dawson, Gideon N. Ashitei & Paulina S. Addy – Women in Agricultural Development (WIAD) Directorate –Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MOFA), Ghana..
Mushroom cultivation requires a very well managed local climate which must be cool, adequately ventilated, with high humidity and optimal light. This becomes especially necessary at the cropping stage. Conventionally, small to medium scale growers achieve this by construction of thatch-roofed structures having bamboo, coconut frond or palm frond walls. Although these materials are relatively cheap and easy-to-find they tend to have a short life span and also require a lot of maintenance and repairs. The latter materials also lack the ability of protecting the mushrooms from pest attack. In addition, the floors of such mushroom cultivation structures are usually bare ground which further allows rodents/pests (which were common at the selected site) to have access into the structure to contaminate and destroy the mushrooms and bags.
Being fully aware of the challenges regarding creation of a conducive environment for mushroom cultivation and the prevailing pest situation at the current location, the project team applied a good degree of innovation and novelty in the “Using cassava peels for mushroom cultivation” Project. These constituted a prominent part of the achievements or successes of the project.
Having sustainability in mind from the very onset, corrugated roofing sheets were used for the entire mushroom house to increase its lifespan. The metallic roofing sheets however presented a challenge in respect of heat generation and this was resolved through the use of a layer of Envirotuff® immediately beneath the roof. The cropping room was further given a ceiling of plywood which had been padded with an upper layer of expandable Polystyrene to prevent heat in the room. In addition to the “brapaa” (woven palm fronds) that was used as wall material for the mushroom house in this project layers of mosquito net and wire mesh were used. The latter served the purposes of keeping out flying insects and rodents respectively in an effort to promote hygiene and strengthen the walls for durability. Again, in order to keep rodents out of the mushroom house concrete floors and three (3) courses of Sandcrete blocks were constructed to form the base of the structure.
There was an element of uncertainty in the initial stages but the project team was very pleased to have been successful in its improvisation efforts. Very good harvests were obtained from the use of these unconventional building materials for the mushroom house. Thus, the success of the novel structure will enable the project to have greater impact in the long-term as the local community will enjoy a longer use of the facility. The mushroom house will also serve as a training centre for a relatively longer period than the conventional version in aid of sustainability and tangible impact.
Currently, the Gyaman Senior High School in the immediate environs of the project site has expressed interest in taking advantage of its proximity to train students offering the Agricultural Science programme. The Director of the Gomoa-East District Agricultural Development Unit has also expressed similar interest in using the mushroom infrastructure to train farmers in other communities within the district in mushroom cultivation as an alternative livelihood skill.
The “Using Cassava Peels for Mushroom Cultivation” project is also supporting Food and Nutrition security in the local communities as their interest in mushroom consumption is on the rise. Members of the processing group have also been using some the harvest to support their nutritional needs. Some individuals in the community have requested for inoculated bags for production so that they can have regular supply from their homes. The local group has bought into the project by taking full ownership responsibility for its sustainability.
According to the World Economic Forum (2015), Africa produces only 2.6% of global scientific knowledge with just 29 publications per million inhabitants compared to 1,013 and 609 for North America and Europe respectively. 64.6% of these publications are co-authored with researchers from other continents. The continent has just 79 scientists per million inhabitants compared to countries like Brazil and United States where the ratio stands at 656 and 4,500, respectively (UNESCO Science Report – Towards 2030). Currently, Africa’s contribution to the global knowledge system is among the lowest in the world. This is mainly due to the low institutional and individual knowledge generation capacity on one hand, and the weak institutional capacity and infrastructure for collecting, storing and managing the data and information being generated on the other. Informed decision-making processes at all levels are weak due to low availability and accessibility of relevant and reliable data, information or knowledge.
FARA and her constituents (national and sub-regional) have emerged as credible knowledge institutions and have over the years generated relevant science, technology and innovation knowledge needed for the transformation of African agriculture. FARA knowledge products and systems cover areas of human capital, competences/skills, job opportunities, educational programmes, policy, Innovations systems and partnerships, rural farming and farming systems, continental initiatives, knowledge management and advocacy, among others. In agreement with Young 2005, FARA’s knowledge systems outreach over the years has brought together people in millions (researchers, policy analysts, development practitioners, decision makers and other stakeholders), organizations (universities, National research Institutes including other government agencies, NGOs and Private [farmer) sector groups) and the knowledge that is accumulated and shared among them (results of research analysis, information on synthesis and trends, demand and supply of capacities and local knowledge and expertise).
The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is the apex organization for agricultural research for development in Africa. The completion of the implementation of various strategies over the past two decades, presaged the development of a new strategy in the year 2018 to consolidate the significant gains over the years. Lessons learnt and god practices from past interventions led to the establishment of a strong and effective information and knowledge management and outreach system that offers access to knowledge and decision support solutions for stakeholders in Africa especially on capacities, policies, practices, technologies and innovative funding instruments as well as establishing appropriate frameworks and guidelines for integrating the Science Agenda (S3A) into CAADP and STISA 2024 processes and strategies. These are aimed at improving productivity, competitiveness and integration of the agricultural sector; Strengthened policy, technical and institutional capacities of national and regional stakeholders to design and implement programs of the science agenda; and build/strengthen innovation systems and partnerships among national and regional stakeholders as well as develop partners to facilitate multi-stakeholder engagement, dialogue and resource support for the implementation of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa.
To effectively provide science, technology and innovation (STI) knowledge support to the CAADP country process and for the implementation of the Malabo Declaration for 2025, FARA and partners developed the FARADataInformS; a repository that repositions existing platforms as well as create the opportunity for introducing new data and pulling data from third party sources. It was also in response to demand by FARA constituents during the S3A regional and national consultations held in Rwanda, Malawi, Ghana and Senegal of over 40 countries in 2017, that FARA needs to continue to strengthen its knowledge management systems and infrastructure to help bridge the research and policy gap, provide foresight and to domesticate African data, information and knowledge to support decision making and advocacy at all levels.
FARADataInformS serves as a continental repository and observatory of relevant Science and Technology Indicators (STI) metrics with analytical features for agriculture at country level serving as the basic resource from which various information services and products are derived. FARADataInformS integrates existing databases in FARA and develops a continental strategy for data capture and analysis to populate and update the FARADataInformS within the African agricultural innovation system (AAIS).
For cost effective and sustainable data capture strategy, FARA has partnered with the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) and other existing data collection institutions within the countries such as the statistical services and chambers of commerce. In addition, FARA is using its various networks and interns as sources of data collection from the countries. FARA continues to build specific partnerships with other international and continental organizations operating similar data systems using their comparative advantages and subsidiary principle including SROs, AOSTI, PANAP, EC-DeSIRA, FAOSTATS, The World Bank data amongst others to continue to strengthen this agenda.
Tools Offered by FARADataInformS in the Mist of COVID-19
FARA is a thought leader in AR4D. Over the years, FARA has created important networks and led major continental discussions focused on solutions to the huge knowledge gap. These resulted in the development of major knowledge tools and the creation of relevant Communities of Practice (CoPs). These tools include the eCapacities, the Regional Agricultural Information and Learning System (eRAILS), the Innovation Platform Agribusiness Portal (IPAbP), the PAEPARD and the BiomassNet portals. FARA maintains a Library (Hardcopy & online) whereas all CoPs were established using the Dgroups. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, these have been leveraged by Africa AR4D partners to brainstorm on measures aimed at mitigating the effects of the pandemic on Africa Food Security.
The eCapacities is an online marketplace for the demand and supply of capacities in strategic human capital formation. The platform provides a real-time review of the levels of capacity and demand in each participating country and dynamically estimating the capacity gaps for use in priority setting and targeting of investments. e-Capacities connects training providers, workplaces and graduates, and allows them to interact with each other in contextualized and mutually beneficial ways. Currently being implemented in Kenya, Ghana, Zambia and Uganda as Tier 1 countries, the portal has registered over 100 training providers with hundreds of programmes posted, 80 workplaces and over 10,000 graduates and employees data captured. This is a platform provides critical opportunities and solutions, particularly in the mist of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The eRAILS online platform developed in 2009, facilitates the mobilization of relevant local solutions to agriculture particularly research outputs, local knowledge and experiences from African stakeholders for knowledge sharing. It is a dynamic, decentralized, robust and versatile system that provides equitable access to a web-based agricultural information to both individuals and institutions, to establish websites to facilitate active interaction among themselves and other interested users across Africa and beyond towards building a knowledge-based economy for Africa. Implemented in over 45 African countries, coordinated by the SROs and owned by NARES, eRAILS has so far provided access to about 1,231 accounts, 1,894 websites and over 7,164 webpages. The IFAD Rural Solution portal also provides similar opportunities.
The IPAbP is a web information repository which aggregates information for all the Innovation Platforms in Africa to foster linkages with other agricultural innovation organizations, donors and development partners; to facilitate access to information and solutions on platforms to enhance collaboration and develop big businesses. It offers different IP facilitators an opportunity to demonstrate their Innovations and other products to a wider audience. Its analytics component further provides development partners, policy makers and agriculture stakeholders an avenue to directly source data on availability and veracity of all Innovation Platforms on the continent. Over 430 IPs across Africa have registered and are sharing knowledge and good practices on the portal.
Whiles the PAEPARD platform facilitates multi-stakeholder partnerships between Africa and Europe in the field of agricultural research for development (ARD) using the User-Led Approach, it is the hub that provides access to all relevant funding opportunities and upcoming events for AR4D stakeholders in Africa. In the same vain, the BiomassNet provides an interactive network for practitioners, policy makers, scientists, and other experts interested in knowledge sharing and dissemination of information concerning biomass in Africa.
Dgroups is a professional open-space collaboration tool that offers users the opportunity to contribute to dialogue and decision-making for international development. Supported by the monthly Information Sharing and Technical Seminars, FARA’s Dgroup has over the years offered various stakeholders in AR4D an effective and efficient knowledge dissemination and collaboration mechanisms. The over 10 Dgroup Communities of Practice of FARA currently reaches out to more than 50,000 individuals/stakeholders from diverse agricultural interest backgrounds in all 55 African countries and to over 131 countries globally. In the mist of the COVID-19 pandemic, Dgroups remain the most important collaborative tool for the majority of AR4D actors in Africa. FARA has held more than 30 discussions addressing important interventions in policy, foresight, capacity development, innovation systems, knowledge and solutions, partnerships and relevant topics involving the AU, NEPAD/AUDA,, AFAAS, CCARDESA, CORAF, ASARECA and other key players within the Africa AR4D. You may also register HERE to be part of this important assembly of AR4D actors.
FARA currently operates both hardcopy (over 5,000 books) and online libraries. Through its four publication mechanisms (FARA Research Report -FRR, FARA Dissemination Notes – FDNs, FARA Policy Briefs Series – FPBS and FARA Flagship Publication – AfARR), FARA continues to provide opportunities for African researchers to publish their knowledge products for wider outreach.
The development of the FARADataInformS marks the beginning of an important coordinated effort aimed at achieving greater integration, foresight and harmonization of Africa’s knowledge systems for AR4D and the S3A as demonstrated during the COVID-19 pandemic. FARADataInformS will continue to establish and sustain itself as the most credible and reliable portal, working closely with the NARS, SROs, AFAAS and other key partners, offering countries an added opportunity for greater collaboration, learning and sharing. It will continue to build stronger partnerships and outreach with relevant stakeholders at the National level and other continental and sub-continental institutions.
By: Benjamin Abugri (Knowledge Management & Outreach Officer)
