African Crop Science Journal African Crop Science Society ISSN: 1021-9730 EISSN: 2072-6589 Vol. 7, Num. 4, 1999, pp. 299-302

African Crop Science Journal, Vol. 7. No. 4, pp. 299-302, 1999

FOREWORD

TRAINING M.SC.-LEVEL AGRICULTURAL PROBLEM SOLVERS IN AFRICA

B.K. PATEL, E. ADIPALA¹ and P.L. WOOMER²

The Rockefeller Foundation, P. O. Box 30721, Lilongwe 3, Malawi
¹Department of Crop Science, Makerere University, P.O. Box 7062, Kampala, Uganda
²Department of Soil Science, University of Nairobi, P.O. Box 30197, Nairobi, Kenya

Code Number: CS99018

The papers appearing in this issue of the African Crop Science Journal are contributed by participants in the Forum for Agricultural Resource Husbandry (FORUM) and are based upon presentations at the 4th African Crop Science Congress at Casablanca, Morocco, 11 - 14th October 1999. The FORUM was initiated by the Rockefeller Foundation to strengthen the M.Sc. programmes of agricultural faculties in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe and is intended to provide locally-trained graduates with practical orientations and strong problem-solving skills.

Les articles contenus dans cette publication du Journal Africain de la Science des Cultures est une contribution des participants au Forum de l’économie agricole (FORUM) et sont basés sur les présentations au 4ème Congrés Africain de la Science des Cultures tenu au Casablanca, Maroc du 11-14th Octobre 1999. Le FORUM a été initié par la Fondation Rockefeller pour renforcer les programmes de maitrise des facultés d’agronomie au Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda et Zimbabwe avec intention de produire des finalistes locallement formés avec des orientations pratiques et des capacités fortes de résoudre des problémes.

The threat of mass famine looms in Africa and food security must remain the primary goal within agricultural development agendas. Africa has experienced repeated, episodic food shortages resulting from drought or civil unrest. More affluent citizens in the northern hemisphere respond through support of various food relief organisations, expressing sympathy through modest contributions and experiencing emotional reward through mass media accounts of successful food distribution efforts. But do not be deceived, unless rapid progress is made within the smallholder food production sector, the near-future bodies not episodic but chronic food insecurity of a scale beyond the abilities of charitable organisations to obtain and distribute food surpluses. Despite the billions of dollars invested through development aid and loans, per capita food production throughout sub-Saharan Africa continues to decline (World Bank, 1996) as its population grows and natural resources degrade (Woomer and Muchena, 1996; Sanchez et al., 1997). The proliferation of secondary rural issues, whether vitamin nutrition, gender roles or biodiversity assessment, serves as subtle reminder that the core goal of food security for Africa is not being accomplished.

Yet the production of food surplus in sub-Saharan Africa during most years to counterbalance deficits resulting from natural disaster is an achievable objective. While the availability of new lands for agriculture is diminished, most cultivated lands are seriously under-utilised and raising their yield potential, that is narrowing "yield-gaps" compared to large-scale commercial farms, is the obvious first choice for increased food production. International and national agricultural research organisations have achieved modest successes in plant breeding and commodity development but have proven less effective in natural resource management (Eicher, 1999). Structural reforms are intended to result in better access to farm inputs and more equitable storage and marketing products (Alexandratos, 1997). Democracy and better governance is leading to empowerment of rural communities to more effectively identify, if not resolve, pressing local issues including food security (Sen, 1999).

Within the context of food security, this experience dictates that agricultural constraints be resolved through strategies devised and implemented by Africans to mobilise regional resources. Front-line agricultural problem-solving requires a large cadre of dedicated, well-trained, free-thinking scientists who operate as interdisciplinary team members (Norman et al., 1994) but from where will these scientists originate and how might they best be trained?

Faced with economic hardships, virtually all governments in sub-Saharan Africa have had to down size on funding for higher education. This reduction has resulted, in part, from shifting priorities to basic and secondary education but also because of unrealised expectations from previous investment in higher education (Lynam and Blackie, 1994). As a result, universities have suffered from funding cuts as high as 80% (Court, 1991).

The Rockefeller Foundation initiated the Forum for Agricultural Resource Husbandry (FORUM) in 1992 directed toward Universities in Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Uganda and Zimbabwe to provide "resources, mission and peer support, leading to knowledge contributing to improved lives of smallhold farmers" (Patel and Woomer, 2000). The focus of this effort is improvement in the quality of training at the Master of Science (M.Sc.) level (Adipala et al., 1998) under the assumption that M.Sc. graduates with practical orientation and strong problem-solving skills are urgently required as trainers, extension specialists and project managers in national research systems, development agencies and industry (Nair et al., 1990). Furthermore, strengthened capacity in M.Sc. training by faculties of agriculture within national universities is a cost-effective and potentially sustainable means of generating the scientific expertise required to address Africa’s pressing agricultural issues. Grant proposals are submitted by faculty members qualified to supervise M.Sc. students and evaluated in terms of strategic importance to smallholder food production and technical feasibility. To date, 57 grants providing US $4.7 million were awarded to 41 Principal Investigators at nine universities resulting in scholarship opportunities for 121 students. The papers appearing within this issue of African Crop Science Journal have originated through grants by the FORUM.

A conceptual model has evolved within the FORUM to guide policy decisions and assess programme impacts that places the activities of its M.Sc. students in a central position among diverse FORUM participants. The Student-in-the-Centre model views the reciprocal interactions between students and project investigators, university faculties, other cooperating institutions and the larger agricultural community as the driving forces behind scholarship and academic advancement (Fig. 1). Inherent in the model is curriculum development and university capacity building, and provision of research support to agricultural research institutions to propel finding practical solutions to agricultural resource constraints.

An initial step, not elucidated in this model, is a grantee investigator recruiting a promising student who becomes enroled within a university and begins to develop a thesis proposal that leads to a research topic. As this student provides feedback on problems in accomplishing their responsibilities to other FORUM members, this assists in the formulation of specific initiatives designed to improve curricula. For example, assistance in developing improved access to the scientific literature and implementation of supplemental training in biometrics resulted from student concerns. Principal Investigators are expected to embrace M.Sc. students as members of a research team in a scholarly manner that proves mutually beneficial. The academic advancement of FORUM grantees through joint scientific authorship with their students and the successful placement of graduates into diverse areas of employment, reinforces this conceptual model.

All FORUM grants are required to include collaboration with an outside agency, preferably one with agricultural expertise that strengthens the university-based research project. Students may be seconded to these organisations during part of their research training. While working with collaborators, FORUM students have refined research methods that may not have otherwise occurred and have also returned to their universities with new techniques. As students interact with agricultural stakeholders, they gain greater appreciation of problem-solving that helps shape their future as professional agriculturalists. In many cases, farmers have benefited directly from research findings by students. While the Student-in-the-Centre model is admittedly over-simplified as it ignores interactions between other FORUM partners and its validation confounded by accomplishments not involving students, nonetheless it serves as a useful tool to assist FORUM members to better understand the overall objectives and operational strategies of the FORUM.

Smallholders require a broader selection of locally-validated management options that improve crop production. These management options are unlikely to be identified by jet-setting international scientists or transient expatriate consultants but rather require the careful, time-consuming attention of dedicated field workers. So too do educational policy-makers require options. We do not present the FORUM as a "solution" but rather a workable mode of backstopping agricultural training. Certainly, the FORUM has restricted geographical and thematic mandate and in terms of financial commitment it is one of many initiatives in agricultural education. The strength of the FORUM’s approach is that it may be easily replicated and other organisations interested in strengthening the abilities of African universities to undertake relevant agricultural research are encouraged to design similar programmes (Patel and Woomer, 2000).

Ultimately, the success of the FORUM will be weighed by the scientific impacts of its investigators and students and later accomplish-ments of its grantees and graduates. Readers are invited to assess for themselves the scientific credentials of the programme based upon the work presented in this issue of the African Crop Science Journal.

REFERENCES

Adipala, E., Kanyama-Phiri, G., Karanja, N. and Norman, D. 1998. Evaluation of the Forum Programme Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation. The Rockefeller Foundation, Malawi Office. 160 pp.

Alexandratos, N. 1997. Agricultural development in the economy-wide context: approaches to policies and strategies. World Agriculture: Towards 2010, A FAO study. pp. 257-293. John Wiley and Sons, Chichester.

Court, D. 1991. The Development of University Education in sub-Saharan Africa. In: International Education: An Encydopedia. Philp G. Altbach (Ed.), pp. 329-347. New York: Garland Publishing, Inc.

Eicher, C.K. 1999. Institutions and the African Farmer. Third Economist Distinguished Lecture. CIMMYT, Mexico D.F. 60 pp.

Lynam, J.K. and Blackie, M.J. 1994. Building effective agricultural research capacity: The African challenge. In: Agricultural Tech-nology: Policy Issues for the International Community. Anderson, J.R. (Ed.), pp. 106-134. CAB International, Wallingford, UK.

Nair, P.K.R., Gholz, H.L. and Duryea, M.L. 1990. Recommendations of the International Workshop on professional education and training in agroforestry. Agroforestry Systems 12:133-139.

Norman, D.W., Francis, C.A. and Heinrich, G.M. 1994. Providing relevant education and training for Sub-Saharan African agricultural scientists: foundation for a sustainable future. Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 4:79 - 90.

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Patel, B.K. and Woomer, P.L. 2000. Strengthening agricultural education in Africa: The approach of the Forum for Agricultural Resource Husbandry. The Journal of Sustainable Agriculture (in press).

Sen, A. 1999. Democracy as a Universal Value. Keynote address at the Global Conference on Democracy, New Delhi, 14 - 17 February 1999. 23 pp.

Sanchez, P.A., Shepherd, K.D., Soule, M.J., Place, F.M., Mukwunye, A.U., Bursch, R.J., Kwesiga, F.R., Izac, A-M.N., Ndiritu, C.G. and Woomer, P.L. 1997. Soil fertility replenishment in Africa: An investment in natural resource capital. In: Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa. Bursch, R.J., Sanchez, P.A. and Calhoun, F. (Eds.), pp. 1 - 46. Soil Science Society of America Special Publication NO. 51. Madison, Wisconsin.

Woomer, P.L. and Muchena, F.N. 1996. Recognising and overcoming soil constraints to crop production in tropical Africa. African Crop Science Journal 4:503-518.

World Bank. 1996. African Development Indicators 1996. The World Bank, Washington D.C.

©1999, African Crop Science Society

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