Semi-Arid Food Grain Research and Development (SAFGRAD)

About:

SAFGRAD’s role is to lead activities on resilience of rural livelihoods in semi-arid Africa. Its vision is to accelerate growth of agriculture by promoting productive-friendly technologies and by building institutional capacity. It focuses on agricultural research, technology transfer, marketing, enhancement of value chains, management of natural resources, mitigation and adaptation to climate change, combating desertification, policy development and information dissemination to rural communities.

Evolution
African Heads of State and Government created the SAFGRAD office in 1977 to respond to recurrent droughts, the virtual lack of appropriate and economically feasible technologies to improve agricultural production in semi-arid agro-ecosystems, and the 1970s food security crisis.

With the advent of the AU in 2003, the Executive Council gave AU-SAFGRAD the new responsibility of addressing the particular challenges facing African countries with semi- arid zones. In addition, the Executive Council requested that SAFGRAD be institutionalised as a specialised agency for food security and sustainable agriculture, to enable the AU to streamline tasks and play a key role in improving the livelihoods of rural households by accelerating the growth of agriculture. SAFGRAD was institutionalised as a specialised technical office of the AU in 2003.

In October 2010, the Conference of African Ministers of Agriculture, held in Lilongwe, Malawi, requested SAFGRAD to work on access to and management of land and water, production, productivity, technology and innovation, interaction of climate change and desertification, market opportunities, policies and institutions; and to lead formulation of programmes to improve livelihoods in semi-arid Africa.

In 2014, AU Member States requested SAFGRAD to provide an effective platform for guidance, experience sharing and coordination among existing African centres of excellence on desertification. As part of the 2019–23 strategic plan, SAFGRAD will focus on the promotion of agricultural research and development to build the resilience of smallholder households, and support for interventions by facilitating policy that strengthens ecosystems for sustainable agriculture in semi-arid zones of Africa.

Structure

SAFGRAD is headed by a coordinator who reports directly to the AU Commission through the Department of Rural Economy and Agriculture (DREA). A multi-stakeholder steering committee provides technical oversight and guidance.