Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)

Monty P. Jones, Executive Secretary (FARA)

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is an umbrella organization bringing together and forming coalitions of major stakeholders in agricultural research and development in Africa.  The vision of FARA is for African agriculture to become vibrant and competitive on the international market, growing at a rate of at least 6% per annum by the year 2015.

Empowered by the mandates given to it as the technical arm of the Commission of the African Union and New Partnership for Agricultural Development (NEPAD) for the implementation of the fourth pillar of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), FARA is advocating for more resources, promoting partnerships and enhancing information exchange to raise the impact of agricultural research as well as increase productivity through innovations systems approaches.

These three primary functions are being advanced by five integrated initiatives that are aimed at achieving the goals African heads of state and governments have committed to through the CAADP and the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

These initiatives are being developed by FARA, together with its member sub regional organisations, Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and all stakeholders in African agriculture to address the most critical requirements for effective African agricultural innovation.

FARA INITIATIVES

FAAP:
The Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) will provide a cohesive structure for African agricultural innovation and promote harmonisation of internal and external actions and actors. It will offer a structure within which the roles and responsibilities of the different actors can be negotiated and agreed with minimised duplication, coverage of all vital links in the value chains and assured deliverables.

The FAAP was endorsed at the recently concluded Heads of States Summit in June 2006 in Banjul, Gambia.   The FAAP brings together the essential elements needed for the evolution of African national agricultural productivity programs. It provides the guiding principles and indicates best practices that should be employed by national governments, sub regional, continental, international organizations and Africa's development partners to improve African agriculture.

SSA CP:
The Sub Saharan Africa Challenge Programme (SSA CP) aims to substantially increase the impact of agricultural research on livelihoods of smallholder farmers in sub Saharan Africa (SSA) by transforming the way sectors and institutions engage in the research.  . Presently, SSA CP activities are concentrated in three learning sites located in southern Africa (Zimbabwe-Mozambique-Malawi), East and Central Africa (DR Congo, Rwanda and Uganda) and in West Africa (Nigeria and Niger).  The SSA CP is bringing the whole African agricultural research and development community including national agricultural research institutes, CGIAR centres, universities, NGOs, farmer organizations and the private sector into Pilot Learning Teams that will carry out Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D). The program's research agenda over the next three years focuses on validating innovation systems approaches in the SSA context through action research.
 
Although, Ghana is not included in the current 3 Pilot Learning sites, it will benefit from the lessons learned from the other sites which will be available to Ghanaian scientists and extension workers.  Also another pilot learning site may run through Ghana during the expansion of the SSA CP.

SCARDA/BASIC:
A programme for Building and Strengthening Africa's Capacity for Agricultural Research and Development (SCARDA/BASIC) is being developed through extensive consultations between African and non-African partner institutions on what is required to reinvigorate tertiary agricultural education and strengthen the capacity of African scientist.  This is to ensure that Africa will produce the human capacity required for endogenously driven innovation in agriculture.

RAILS:
The need to empower stakeholders at all levels and sectors of agriculture with access to information and learning is being addressed through a Regional Agricultural Information and Learning System (RAILS).  FARA is working with the Global Forum for Agricultural Research (GFAR) and the SROs to develop an African interface that will provide a platform or gateway to African Agricultural research for development. Amongst other functions, RAILS will host a directory of experts, organisations, programmes and projects and funding opportunities in Africa.  It is an open system where information may be posted by any interested stakeholder.  Ghana can benefit directly from this programme by using it to ensure that information reaches its farmers and all other stakeholders. It is intended that it will also enable access to the tools needed to convert information into knowledge applicable to their own unique circumstances.

DONATA:
Through its technology dissemination programme called Dissemination of New Agricultural Technologies in Africa (DONATA), FARA is assisting to address the challenge faced by Africa in the dissemination proven technologies across boundaries and regions on the continent.  The programme aims at disseminating agricultural technologies across the four sub-regions of Africa, namely, West, East, Central and Southern Africa as well as building the capacity of national agricultural research system (NARS) to catalyze technology adoption and document experiential learning for dissemination across sub-regions in scaling-out the promising new technologies in Africa.  NERICA rice, Tissue-culture banana, IR Maize, improved cassava varieties and Integrated Natural Resource Management tools have been earmarked by FARA and NEPAD to form the initial DONATA portfolio. The promotion of a portfolio of technologies in a single programme will facilitate learning about dissemination processes and the sharing of facilities and infrastructures.

In this regard, FARA is collaborating with the University of Ghana's Kpong Research station through the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Ghana (CSIR) in building the capacity of the station to produce quality NERICA seeds for dissemination to farmers in Ghana.  In addition, AU/NEPAD has mandated FARA to embrace the fisheries research portfolio, therefore as one of its initial programmes, FARA is collaborating with the Development Action Association (DAA) in Ghana to improve the livelihoods of young women in Nyanyano through improved fish smoking technologies.  
 
ABBI:
The FARA-led African Biotechnology and Biosafety Initiative (ABBI) aims to have established an enabling environment for biotechnology research for African agricultural development within 5 years.  An essential aspect of this is to ensure that biotechnical research will be conducted with due consideration for human health and environmental concerns. For that, African countries require uniform internationally accepted biosafety policies, regulations and standards that are appropriate to their needs and circumstances. The objectives of ABBI are to establish a common African biosafety policy, identify gaps and weaknesses in regional priority biotechnology and in the supporting biosafety policies, regulations and standards and propose corrective measures, develop biosafety capacity amongst stakeholders engaged in transactions related to the transfer of biotechnology techniques or products and in conducting biotechnology research and development and ensure that the biosafety conditions and regulations accepted by African governments in international treaties and conventions are consistent with African conditions and perspectives.

CONCLUSION

Achievement of the African vision requires effective collaboration among researchers, farmer advisory service providers, civil society organizations, the private sector, African leaders, sustainable funding and an integrated approach to development.  FARA aims to contribute towards the achievement of this vision by catalyzing effective partnerships among these actors.