African Specialists: Scream for Public-Private Partnerships to Upgrade Agrarian Research

By Abdul Rahman Bangura-

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone– The strategic alliance between administration, industry, and academia keeps up the key to venturing under-funding that has derailed the research and development needed to recast Africa’s food systems, experts said on Wednesday, August 14th, 2024 in the Kenyan capital of Nairobi.

Chris Ojiewo – Strategic Partnerships and Seed Systems lead at the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), spoke out that African administrations should reach out to the private sector in their bid to strengthen the deployment of technologies and innovations that can revolutionize smallholder farming.

“For us to go far in realizing self-sufficiency in agri-food systems development, we definitely need partners,” Ojiewo spoke up on the sidelines of the Africa-China-CIMMYT Science Forum underway.

Assembled by the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS) and CIMMYT, the forum that operates until Friday brought jointly more than 100 scientists, policymakers, and industry leaders from China and Africa to brainstorm new areas of collaboration in agribusiness and rural development. The four day forum runs under the theme “Transforming Agri-food Systems in Africa through Scientific Innovations and Partnerships.”

Ojiewo remarked that a partnership between African and Chinese research institutions as well as the private sector has the probability to revolutionize the growth and uptake of contemporary technologies to foster climate-smart and productive agriculture on the African Landmass.

Provided the anticipations of donor grants toward Africa’s farming research agenda, governments should generate links with local financial institutions to fill the void, he expressed.

Christopher Kunda, Regional Sales Manager at AFRISEED, a seed company based in Zambia, said public-private partnerships have ascertained effectiveness in guaranteeing Africa’s smallholder farmers have access to improved seeds, fertilizer, and herbicides.

To discourse endemic challenges in the continent’s agricultural sector, comprising crop pests and diseases, climatic shocks, under-financing, and lack of research, governments should thump into private sector resources and technical expertise, Kunda recommended.

He stressed that public-private partnerships are key in the research and development of hybrid crops that African smallholder growers need to strengthen yield per acreage and achieve food and nutritional security.

New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports, Africa Correspondent