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

Sub-Saharan Africa's Mothers, Newborns, and Children: Where and Why Do They Die?

In the first article in a series on maternal, newborn, and child health in sub-Saharan Africa, Joy Lawn and colleagues outline where and why deaths among mothers and children occur and what known interventions can be employed to prevent these deaths

Differentiated Community Engagement Approaches but same mission: University Outreach programs in Africa

The African Journal of Rural Development (AFJRD) is a multi-disciplinary peer-reviewed journal with an ultimate purpose of sharing and increasing the depth of knowledge on aspects of sustainable rural development. The articles contained in this issue of the AFJRD, Volume 1 Issue 3 demonstrate the potential contributions of universities to uptake and diffusion of research outputs through well-structured outreach programs. Higher education is increasingly being recognised as a critical aspect of the development process, especially with the growing awareness of the role of science, technology and innovation in economic renewal. There is consensus that universities have immense potential to promote technological development and uptake through their three-fold mission of teaching, research and outreach/community engagement. These are noticeable variations in strategy and approach to outreach/community engagement mainly due to the traditional separation between research and teaching. Reforms that will entail a close linkage between the three-fold mission and promote integration of research and teaching using experiential learning approaches will no double facilitate significant attention and improvements in structuring as well as institutionalising outreach/community engagement programs

Effectiveness of bylaws in supporting sustainable crop intensification: A case of potato farming in Southwestern Uganda

This is a research article assessing the effectiveness of formal and informal bylaws in supporting sustainable crop intensification in potato farming regions of Southwestern UgandaThe study assessed the effectiveness of formal and informal bylaws in supporting sustainable crop intensification in potato farming regions of Southwestern Uganda. An exploratory case-study descriptive design was adopted, involving both qualitative and quantitative approaches. The study relied on data from the review of the existing formal and informal bylaws on sustainable crop intensification, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. A total of 41 bylaws were assessed, involving key informants (22) and FDGs (6) respondents who participated in the study. The effectiveness of formal bylaws was high, because of the significant scores (7-8) on individual principles of effective institutions, with the highest principles being principle 2 (18%) and 7 (18%), and lowest being principle 8 (3%). The informal bylaws covered significantly only 2 principles of effective institutions from the total score 3 (100%). That is, principle 7 (37%) and 2 (33%), respectively. The coverage for 6 out of 8 principles was significantly very low. The study found greater levels of effectiveness significant for 7 out of 8 principles of effective institutions on formal bylaws more than informal bylaws (significant for principle 7 and 2 only), and most effective of the principles being principles 2 and 7 on both categories of bylaws. The study demonstrated the importance of both formal and informal bylaws in supporting SCI as both synergised each other in supporting intensification processes. The study recommends adapting existing bylaws to the eight designated principles of institutional effectiveness

Factors influencing implementation of bylaws on sustainable crop intensification: Evidence from potatoes in southwestern Uganda

The study examined the factors for the successful implementation of bylaws on sustainable crop intensification. The study used the new institutionalism theory to examine the implementation of bylaws in the potato cropping system in southwestern Uganda. A mixed model featuring both qualitative and quantitative approaches was used in the study. This involved analysis of primary data. The primary sources were key informants, focus group discussions, and face to face interviews with individual farmers, as well as secondary data sources. Factors influencing the effective implementation of bylaws on sustainable crop intensification at community level included awareness of existing bylaws, availability of extension agents to sensitize and train farmers on bylaws, power relations and conflicts among farmers, and availability of financial resources for procurement of agro-inputs. The factors influencing implementation of bylaws on sustainable crop intensification at the individual level included farmers’ knowledge on bylaws (P = 0.03), farmers’ participation in activities organised by government agencies (P = 0.01), the farmers’ village/location (P = 0.03), farmers’ gender (P = 0.001), farmers’ other occupations (P = 0.01), and income earnings (P = 0.02), support of local councils and technical persons to implement bylaws (P = 0.01), and knowledge on soil and water conservation laws (P = 0.03). Thus, there is need to protect land rights (regardless of gender), create awareness on best practices and bylaws among farmers, and mobilize resources to strengthen formal and informal farmer groups to enhance sustainable crop intensification and economic development of the potato sector

Food waste supply and behaviour towards its alternative uses in Kampala city, Uganda

Abstract Solid waste management is a major challenge in sub-Saharan Africa in general and its food waste component is high and increasing with the rapidly increasing population. Survey data (class p1) collected from households, hotels, restaurants, schools and produce markets were analysed using descriptive and logistic regression analyses for insights into the types and amounts of food waste, and respondents’ attitudes and practices towards its collection, disposal and alternative uses. Households produce the highest amounts of food waste compared to institutions (hotels, schools and restaurants) and produce markets. In a week, about 96, 72, and 93% of all the respondents in households, institutions and produce markets respectively experienced food waste at least one to three times. On average, with a solid waste collection coverage of 45%, households, institutions and markets in Kampala can respectively supply 680, 80, and 8 t of food waste daily. Moulding, poor food storage, food leftovers, food expiry and excess food produce were the major reasons for condemning food to waste. Over 90% of the respondents recognized food waste as a problem, and as a resource especially for use in livestock feed production, and were willing to consume house crickets raised on feed from food waste. Lower levels of education (none, primary and secondary levels), unemployment, and being divorced at household level were positively associated with recognizing food waste as a resource [X2 (21, N = 209) = 137.77, p =  < 0.0001] and re-use for alternative purposes [X2 (21, N = 209) = 47.44, p = 0.001] by households and institutions [X2 (14, N = 92) = 30.97, p =  < 0.019]. Majority of the respondents were willing to donate food waste, especially married people and institutions that have been in existence for a period of 5–10 years