Innovating for skills enhancement in agricultural sciences in Africa: The centrality of field attachment programs

Africa remains an intensely agrarian continent, with two-thirds of its people directly or indirectly deriving their livelihood from agriculture. Higher agricultural education has thus emphasised production of graduates with the requisite skills to drive agricultural development. Despite these efforts, too few graduates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have the employable skills necessary to transition to the labour market. A similar situation is observable among agricultural science graduates, who are vital to serving rural smallholder farmers. Most Colleges of Agriculture in Africa offer field attachment internships in agriculture and related fields but they are largely designed to cater for undergraduate students and are not part of the training programs at graduate level. To ameliorate this gap, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 55 member universities in SSA, designed and rolled out an innovative field attachment program award (FAPA), launched in 2010, to serve graduate students. The FAPA is competitively based and designed to encourage students to follow through with the dissemination of their research and to enable them to link more closely with the communities and agencies working in the geographical area where the research was undertaken.During the period 2010–2015, five grant cycles were successfully implemented and 114 graduate students from 17 countries in SSA awarded. This article discusses the lessons learned during this period by examining two key areas: (1) the application process and implementation of the awards; and (2) the reported outcomes and challenges for grantees. Establishing the award has generated key technical and implementation lessons that the network and individual universities have been able to use to improve and institutionalise processes. Grantees have reported gaining a range of cross-cutting skills in personal mastery, initiative leadership and innovativeness, proactivity, flexibility, communication, analytical capacity, teamwork, networking and advocacy, and technical capacity, particularly in engaging with smallholder farmers. They have also noted significant challenges, in particular around establishing productive and sustainable engagement with smallholder farmers. These outcomes have influenced curricular reviews by member universities, with particular emphasis on these skills sets. Keywords: graduate employability, internships, sub-Saharan Africa, university

Multifunctional land-use practices in Africa

Key evidence of multifunctionality from the success stories: the ‘what?’ Recalling that multifunctional land use aims to produce more than one product or service, we ask: what lessons emerge from the six case studies? Let us look for a moment at the services and products produced and how farmers turned scarcities into resources..

African faculties of agriculture within an expanding university sector

This chapter identifies key challenges for universities and the higher-education sector in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) and, more specifically, explores trends in African faculties of agriculture and their impact on postgraduate training programs. Selected mechanisms by faculties of agriculture and educational networks to respond to the identified challenges are presented and implications of the current trends within the selected faculties are discussed. Finally, the chapter provides lessons and recommendations for improving the quality of postgraduate programs at African faculties.PRIFPRI1; CRP2; ASTIEPTD; PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM

Higher Agricultural Education in Ethiopia: Current status and future prospects

Higher Education quality and relevance is an increasingly important issue in Ethiopia. Previous reforms have significantly increased financing, access and enrollment as well as transformed governance of the higher education system. This study assessed the status of higher agricultural education in Ethiopia and identified key issues for improving its relevance, quality and contribution to national development objectives. The study involved a desk review of literature, key informant discussions, focused group discussions and analysis. The findings revealed that although access to higher education in Ethiopia has improved significantly in the last two decades, important gaps, including those of quality and relevance, equity, leadership and governance remain. There are currently 176 undergraduate and more than 300 postgraduate academic programs in Ethiopia, with 35% female, and 15% private students enrolment. Of these, 50 undergraduate, 74 Masters, and 22 Doctoral programs are related to agriculture in public universities. Discussions with key informants revealed that there was a low perception of agriculture as a program of study. University programs need to be aligned to employment opportunities and relevant staff employed to support program delivery. Facilities for teaching, particularly the science subjects require improvement. The Ethiopian government should consider mechanisms to support the improved transition of graduates to employment, job creation and other opportunities

Making it to the PhD: Gender and student performance in sub-Saharan Africa.

Women's underrepresentation in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) impedes progress in solving Africa's complex development problems. As in other regions, women's participation in STEM drops progressively moving up the education and career ladder, with women currently constituting 30% of Africa's STEM researchers. This study elucidates gender-based differences in PhD performance using new survey data from 227 alumni of STEM PhD programs in 17 African countries. We find that, compared to their male counterparts, sampled women had about one less paper accepted for publication during their doctoral studies and took about half a year longer to finish their PhD training. Negative binomial regression models provide insights on the observed differences in women's and men's PhD performance. Results indicate that the correlates of publication productivity and time to PhD completion are very similar for women and men, but some gender-based differences are observed. For publication output, we find that good supervision had a stronger impact for men than women; and getting married during the PhD reduced women's publication productivity but increased that of men. Becoming a parent during the PhD training was a key reason that women took longer to complete the PhD, according to our results. Findings suggest that having a female supervisor, attending an institution with gender policies in place, and pursuing the PhD in a department where sexual harassment by faculty was perceived as uncommon were enabling factors for women's timely completion of their doctoral studies. Two priority interventions emerge from this study: (1) family-friendly policies and facilities that are supportive of women's roles as wives and mothers and (2) fostering broader linkages and networks for women in STEM, including ensuring mentoring and supervisory support that is tailored to their specific needs and circumstances

Innovating for skills enhancement in agricultural sciences in Africa: The centrality of field attachment programs

Africa remains an intensely agrarian continent, with two-thirds of its people directly or indirectly deriving their livelihood from agriculture. Higher agricultural education has thus emphasised production of graduates with the requisite skills to drive agricultural development. Despite these efforts, too few graduates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) have the employable skills necessary to transition to the labour market. A similar situation is observable among agricultural science graduates, who are vital to serving rural smallholder farmers. Most Colleges of Agriculture in Africa offer field attachment internships in agriculture and related fields but they are largely designed to cater for undergraduate students and are not part of the training programs at graduate level. To ameliorate this gap, the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 55 member universities in SSA, designed and rolled out an innovative field attachment program award (FAPA), launched in 2010, to serve graduate students. The FAPA is competitively based and designed to encourage students to follow through with the dissemination of their research and to enable them to link more closely with the communities and agencies working in the geographical area where the research was undertaken. During the period 2010–2015, five grant cycles were successfully implemented and 114 graduate students from 17 countries in SSA awarded. This article discusses the lessons learned during this period by examining two key areas: (1) the application process and implementation of the awards; and (2) the reported outcomes and challenges for grantees. Establishing the award has generated key technical and implementation lessons that the network and individual universities have been able to use to improve and institutionalise processes. Grantees have reported gaining a range of cross-cutting skills in personal mastery, initiative leadership and innovativeness, proactivity, flexibility, communication, analytical capacity, teamwork, networking and advocacy, and technical capacity, particularly in engaging with smallholder farmers. They have also noted significant challenges, in particular around establishing productive and sustainable engagement with smallholder farmers. These outcomes have influenced curricular reviews by member universities, with particular emphasis on these skills sets.  Keywords: graduate employability, internships, sub-Saharan Africa, universit

Integrated peanut aflatoxin management for increase income and nutrition in Northern Ghana

Aflatoxins contamination in peanut seeds remains a major challenge in Ghana. This study evaluated aflatoxin levels in peanut samples from farmer storage units, and participatory on-farm research trials. In all, 240 respondents were covered from six main producing districts in northern Ghana through a multi-stage sampling approach. Samples were analysed for total aflatoxins using the indirect Enzyme Linked Immunosorbent Assay technique. Overall, total aflatoxins in the farmer stored nuts showed wide variations across communities and districts. At 20 ppm permissible level, 92.9% of samples (n = 240) from farmer stored peanuts and 98.7% of samples (n = 150) from the on-farm demonstrations were classified as safe at 4–8 weeks after harvest. Therefore, sustainable reduction of aflatoxins to safe limits is possible through greater collaboration among the value chain actors. Low-cost good agricultural practices within the remit of the growers should be prioritized alongside public awareness programmes

Developing Higher Education systems in Africa - Selected country views

Knowledge, science, technology and innovations have emerged as predominant factors of production in the 21st century. As such, global economies have joined the race to produce knowledge through investments, regulatory frameworks and macro-economic policies that favour research and innovation. Higher education stands out as a key antecedent of knowledge. Within Africa, from issues of limitations and restrictions to access, higher education service provision has been diversified; the number of Universities increased and enrolments have soared amidst funding and quality challenges. This study of six countries shows how African higher education system are striving to cope with the new context of knowledge production, over and above the traditional role of producing skilled labour. National governments have come up with initiatives and policy documentation that will ensure that Africa can fit within the knowledge economy dispensation. The study affirms that beyond the policy documents, African governments have to fully engage in the business of knowledge production if they are to remain relevant in this competitive global space

PhD programs in Africa: The Arrows, the Targets, and the Archers

International audienceThe research ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa is changing. Organised around new centres of scientific excellence, the sub-continent is building a research agenda aimed toward major development challenges and the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Thus, strengthening doctoral programs and their beneficiaries becomes crucial in supporting this transformation. However, great challenges remain in the designing and implementation of impactful scholarship programs to accompany the creation of African scientific communities of excellence. Stakeholders suffer from a lack of investment in research infrastructure and its operators as well as the absence of sufficient qualified supervisory staff. An increase in the student population and heavy dependence on international partnerships accentuates these challenges. In this context, five doctoral support programs operators in sub-Saharan Africa (ICIPE, IRD, LPI and UNU) offer an inventory of the challenges associated with regional doctoral support. We offer a field vision, based on experience supporting over 1,500 doctoral students in SubSaharan Africa. We propose an approach that addresses SDG 4 - Quality Education and 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructures (mainly objectives 4.b and 9.5) and demonstrate how these programs have become vectors in building sustainable solutions to development challenges in Africa. This proposal aims to draw up the archetype of an impactful regional doctoral program in SubSaharan African that also ensures the well-being of the students involved. This contribution is intended for decision-makers (public and private) and national and international donors committed to strengthening research funding in sub-Saharan Africa through doctoral programs

PhD programs in Africa: The Arrows, the Targets, and the Archers

International audienceThe research ecosystem in sub-Saharan Africa is changing. Organised around new centres of scientific excellence, the sub-continent is building a research agenda aimed toward major development challenges and the achievement of the sustainable development goals. Thus, strengthening doctoral programs and their beneficiaries becomes crucial in supporting this transformation. However, great challenges remain in the designing and implementation of impactful scholarship programs to accompany the creation of African scientific communities of excellence. Stakeholders suffer from a lack of investment in research infrastructure and its operators as well as the absence of sufficient qualified supervisory staff. An increase in the student population and heavy dependence on international partnerships accentuates these challenges. In this context, five doctoral support programs operators in sub-Saharan Africa (ICIPE, IRD, LPI and UNU) offer an inventory of the challenges associated with regional doctoral support. We offer a field vision, based on experience supporting over 1,500 doctoral students in SubSaharan Africa. We propose an approach that addresses SDG 4 - Quality Education and 9 - Industry, Innovation and Infrastructures (mainly objectives 4.b and 9.5) and demonstrate how these programs have become vectors in building sustainable solutions to development challenges in Africa. This proposal aims to draw up the archetype of an impactful regional doctoral program in SubSaharan African that also ensures the well-being of the students involved. This contribution is intended for decision-makers (public and private) and national and international donors committed to strengthening research funding in sub-Saharan Africa through doctoral programs