Keynote Speech لاy H.E. Rhoda Peace Tumusiime,
Commissioner for Rural Economy and Agriculture

on the occasion of the Panel Discussion on “Integration of Higher Education into CAADP and National Investment Plans"

23 July 2014

09:00-10:30

Hall Pungue

Fourth Biennial Conference of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), Maputo, Mozambique

 
Dr. Paul Nampala, Grants Manager, RUFORUM and Master of Ceremonies
Dr. Lindiwe Sibanda, CEO, FANRPAN and Moderator of the Panel
Hon. Dr. Zerubabel N.Ntyira, Minister of State for Agriculture, Republic of Uganda
Dr. Yemi Akinbamijo, Executive Director, FARA
Prof. Mandi Rukuni, CAADP and S3A Co-Member Expert Panels
Vice Chancellors
Participants, Ladies and Gentlemen

Following onto Dr. Yemi’s presentation on Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa, my work seems to have been eased. You explained what CAADP is, CAADP being the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme, the over-arching framework for African agricultural transformation.
I would like to start with a bit of contextualization. Perhaps, we have not been close to institutions of higher learning in CAADP implementation. This makes pertinent, the topic for this Panel discussion: Integration of Higher Education into CAADP and National Investment Plans.

I will speak about how we can work together in the implementation of CAADP.
CAADP for Africa is like the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) for Europe. CAADP is not a project. It is a continental framework for driving the process of agricultural development on the African continent. It contains virtually everything related to agriculture from water and land management, to private sector engagement and market access, from food and nutrition security to agricultural research and technology generation and dissemination.
As has already been said, this is the AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security. Following the declaration by the Heads of State and Government of the African Union of 2014 as the AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security, the AUC and NPCA working with RECs and Member States started the process of implementing the AU Year of Agriculture and Food Security also marking ten years since they adopted the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Program CAADP in 2003 here in Maputo Mozambique.
This process entailed extensive multistakeholder consultations with civil society, private sector, women, youth, partners and Ministers of Agriculture, Rural Development, Livestock, Fisheries and Aquaculture, on the progress registered, challenges encountered and lessons drawn from the last ten years of CAADP implementation. The culmination of this process was the AU Summit in June 2014 in Malabo Equatorial Guinea. At that Summit, Heads of State and Government considered the outcomes and recommendations of key stakeholders and partners and adopted the Accelerated African Agricultural Transformation and Growth Agenda, a recommitment to sustaining the CAADP momentum considering the large number of AU Member States that have signed the CAADP Compact and formulated the National Agricultural Investment Plans. The Heads of State and Government came up with a number of commitments including:

• Recommitment to the principles and values of the CAADP Process;
• Recommitment to enhance investment finance in Agriculture;
• Commitment to ending hunger by 2025;
• Commitment to halving poverty by 2025;
• Commitment to boosting intra-African trade in agricultural commodities and services;
• Commitment to enhancing resilience of livelihoods & production systems to climate variability and other shocks; and
• Commitment to mutual accountability to actions and results

The implementation of these commitments will be by you and that is where science, research, technology and innovation come in.
Indeed, CAADP, by virtue of its Pillar IV on Agricultural Research and Technology Generation and Dissemination, already takes into account the involvement of institutions of higher learning in advancing research and innovation for agricultural transformation.
The agricultural sector on the African continent has had a lot of challenges. It is of concern that productivity has fallen below expectation in the context of increasing population and rising food demand; it is also of concern that despite existence in Africa of among the best scientists and their research findings, the technology uptake has been low and not translated into adoption by smallholder farmers to increase productivity. Even the 4 per cent agricultural GDP growth in the African agricultural sector has largely been attributed not to innovation but rather to land expansion.
It is therefore imperative that Universities and other institutions of higher learning notably the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) enhance their participation and contribution to advancing the Accelerated African Agricultural Transformation and Growth Agenda adopted by the AU Heads of State and Government.
The role of Universities within the CAADP framework will, therefore, be expected in three principal areas, notably Planning, Implementation and Mutual Accountability:

• Planning process: Universities should be used as knowledge centres and specialized policy research institutions to support the process of elaborating CAADP investment plans and programs. You should be the source of information for country investment plans where RECs, NPCA, AUC and Member States use consultants. Therefore, countries will have more accurate identification of priority investment in agriculture. Universities should be part and parcel of the multistakeholder CAADP country teams and play a lead role in the robust work of stocktaking of policies and interventions that have worked and those that have not; and identifying the key drivers of growth in the agricultural sector.

In the national consultative and planning process, Universities’ publications should be made user friendly and disseminated to policy makers, farmers and other practitioners. Universities research findings and publications should respond to some of the unanswered questions such as those related to GMOs.

Implementation phase: Once the investment plans have been put in place, Universities should continue to work with other stakeholders to implement these plans.

Capacity Building

In that context, Universities should adapt their curricula and collaboration with the NARS to adjust the needs in supporting the implementation of investment priorities by training adequately professionals such as scientist and extension workers. University should particularly focus on adequate training of youth and women in agripreneurship and agribusiness along value chains. The Malabo Declaration gives particular attention to the creation of job opportunities for the growing population including the youth and strengthening the capacity of smallholders on priority commodities.

Farmer centred approach

National Agricultural Research Systems need to ensure they reorient their curricula with new emphasis on working with communities through the Community Action Platforms. Universities need to link to farmers and also link with extension workers to help take the Universities’ innovations and technologies to farmers and assist the farmers to apply the innovations and technologies to increase agricultural productivity and reduce post-harvest loss among others.
Private sector

The private sector is so key for CAADP implementation. There is, therefore, need for linkage of Universities with the private sector because there are gaps in value chains that require products of your research. Therefore, work with innovators some of whom are in Universities but others are elsewhere, to improve technology uptake to increase agricultural productivity. This could contribute in translating the research findings of universities to practical applications in agriculture, agroprocessing and agribusiness.
Partnership
As you all know, Agriculture is multi-sectoral and its interventions cut across multiple institutions. Hence the need to work with other stakeholders and not only the Ministry of Agriculture. I am glad to have heard that you are already engaged in this multi-institutional collaboration. It is critical to advance partnerships between universities, government and private sector to create a new generation of professional - scientists and entrepreneurs - able to innovate and provide the enabling environment to use the latest technologies such as Market Information Systems, GIS and remote sensing, agroprocessing technologies and innovation, innovative agribusiness along value chains etc. Linking universities with the private sector to increase uptake of academic research findings and innovations will also require policy interventions as well as institutional reforms so that enabling policies are put in place by government and specific institutions are established to facilitate this productive interplay in the implementation of CAADP.
• Mutual accountability and result delivery improvement: We will put in place a mechanism for the enhanced role of Universities in CAADP. Universities should act as knowledge centers for improving the delivery of results led by the implementation of CAADP investment plans and programs through their support to accountability platforms such as Joint Sector Reviews and CAADP Partnership Platforms. These kinds of platforms are established to ensure that CAADP implementation remains on track. Universities can serve as a source of information that can facilitate policy makers to take informed decisions with imperial evidence. Universities need to be proactive. We will be required to report progress every two years to the Summit of Heads of State and Government.

According to the CAADP Results Framework, all stakeholders must be held accountable.
Countries that are doing well have CAADP Platforms where stakeholders meet and in a number of cases, Ministers chair these platforms and task stakeholders. Ethiopia has the Agricultural Transformation Agency that has checks and balances.
Institutions of Higher Learning should get monitoring tools developed and followed up.
CAADP Results Framework is scientific and must be done by Universities. It highlights 5 main results areas that our stakeholders want to see happening in AU Member States. These are: production and productivity, Food and Nutrition security, Natural resource management and Resilience, private sector investment in agribusiness along value chains and intra African Trade.
Universities and other institutions of higher learning should be able to say what countries need to do to make the desired impact in terms of increasing productivity, reducing expansion of land to instead get more per unit area cultivated, to meet the needs of the increasing population and to turn the youth budge into an opportunity by building their capacities in reoriented curricula, working with farmers and extension workers.

Having highlighted the role expected of Universities and other Institutions of higher learning in CAADP implementation from Planning through Implementation to Mutual Accountability, I hope that your Capacity Building Programs, Research, Innovation and Technologies will be directed to these areas in a more focused and structured way towards the Accelerated African Agricultural Transformation and Growth Agenda.
I thank you for your attention.