Aiyelaagbe, Isaac

Atungwu, J.

Harris, Phil

Trenchard, Liz J.

Organic agriculture has developed over the past fifty years and has become a major international phenomenon in the last 15-20 years with the development of significant international trade, regulation and certification. The participation of Sub-Saharan African nations in this sector is relatively recent, though countries such as Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, have made rapid progress in entering the international market. Many West African countries, however, lack relevant expertise and most staff in higher education has been trained exclusively in conventional agricultur

Coventry University Pure Portal

 Coventry University    Coventry University Repository for the Virtual Environment (CURVE)  Author names:  Aiyelaagbe, I. , Harris, P.J.C. , Trenchard, L. and Atungwu, J. Title: Organic agriculture in higher education in West Africa Article & version: Published version Original citation & hyperlink:  Aiyelaagbe, I. , Harris, P.J.C. , Trenchard, L. and Atungwu, J. (2009) Organic agriculture in higher education in West Africa. . Ecology & Farming, volume 45 http://shop.ifoam.org/bookstore/product_info.php?cPath=64_21_69&products_id=497    Copyright © and Moral Rights are retained by the author(s) and/ or other copyright owners. A copy can be downloaded for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or charge. This item cannot be reproduced or quoted extensively from without first obtaining permission in writing from the copyright holder(s). The content must not be changed in any way or sold commercially in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders.   Available in the CURVE Research Collection: January 2012     http://curve.coventry.ac.uk/open   Ecology & Farmingplus IFOAM pages, Global Monitor, Publications and EventsEcology and FarmingThe magazine of the International Federation of Organic Agriculture MovementsNo. 45  August 2009  • 5€ Organic AfricaFrom Madagascar to Nigeria   Ethiopia to South AfricaThe challenge and success of sustainable organic agriculture in Africa31Ecology & Farming  |   august 2009Organic Agriculture in Higher Education in West Africaby I.O.O. Aiyelaagbe1, P.J.C. Harris2, E. Trenchard2 and J.J. Atungwu11Department of Horticulture, UNAAB, Nigeria2Sustainable Agriculture and Food Applied Research Group, Coventry University, UKEmail: ola_olu57@yahoo.com, p.harris@coventry.ac.uk, e.trenchard@coventry.ac.uk, jojerat1@yahoo.comBackground Organic agriculture has developed over the past fifty years and has become a major internation-al phenomenon in the last 15-20 years with the development of significant international trade, regulation and certification. The participation of Sub-Saharan African nations in this sector is rel-atively recent, though countries such as Kenya, South Africa and Uganda, have made rapid prog-ress in entering the international market. Many West African countries, however, lack relevant expertise and most staff in higher education has been trained exclusively in conventional agricul-ture. There is, thus, a pressing need to bridge the knowledge gap by providing training and expo-sure in organic agriculture to existing education professionals. It is also important to develop ap-propriate curricula and teaching materials to al-low educational institutions in African nations to deliver high quality courses in organic agricul-ture relevant to the next generation of teachers, researchers, producers, extension officers and policy makers. The work reported in this article centers on the development of organic agricul-ture in higher education in Nigeria and the wider West African region through a series of externally funded projects. The agricultural sector in Nigeria remains under-developed. Although Nigeria was a large exporter of agricultural products in 1960s, by 2001 the oil sector accounted for 94% of the nation’s export earnings. Nevertheless, the agriculture sector still occupies a strategic place in the nation’s economy and provides employment for about 40% of the population. The targets set by the Government, under the National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy includes promotion of en-vironmentally friendly farming practices; and protection of all prime agricultural lands for con-tinued production. Attention has been given by federal, state and local governments, the private sector and NGOs to the potential of organic ag-riculture in Nigeria. However, the formal organic industry in Nigeria is relatively underdeveloped and uncoordinated and there is very little certified organic production. OAPTIN and the England Africa PartnershipIn order to improve the contribution of educa-tion institutions to organic agriculture in Nigeria, the Organic Agriculture Project in Tertiary Institutions in Nigeria (OAPTIN) was launched in 2005 by a consortium of Nigerian universities. OAPTIN functions as a networking and support group and holds an annual conference on organic agriculture. Within the OAPTIN framework, the University of Agriculture Abeokuta (UNAAB) and Coventry University (CU) from the UK ob-tained funding from the UK Department for Education and Skills under the England Africa Partnership (EAP) program. The funding was for a project entitled the “Development of Institutional Capacity in Organic Agriculture”. Its main aim was to increase the level of profes-sional expertise in all aspects of organic agricul-ture in Nigeria, by developing an organic agricul-ture curriculum and teaching materials suitable for Nigerian Tertiary Institutions, and providing exposure for UNAAB staff to organic agricul-ture production, certification, trade, and research methodologies in the EU.At the commencement of the project only one course, Organic and Peri-Urban Farming, taught in the Department of Horticulture at UNAAB was relevant to organic farming. Indeed, a survey of higher education institutions in Nigeria revealed that none had organic agriculture as a degree-lev-el specialization, and only 5 percent taught organ-ic agriculture and/or had organic demonstration 32Ecology & Farming  |   august 2009plots. To develop a draft curriculum for organic agriculture courses, a national workshop, attended by higher education institutions, the private sec-tor and the Nigerian Universities Commission, was held. It was agreed that the most likely way forward is the provision of more electives at the Bachelors level and fully-fledged masters pro-grams in organic agriculture. In an innovative move, two Nigerian graduates returning to Nigeria from CU’s MSc Sustainable Agriculture course in the UK were employed for six months with EAP funding to contribute to or-ganic agriculture curriculum development and research and to establish commercial organic pro-duction and sales on the UNAAB campus. The University allocated land for the construction of an organic produce kiosk in a busy pedestrian area of campus and the availability of a range of organic products has proved popular.Education Partnerships in African Program (EPA)The EPA project above established the prin-ciple of encouraging and supporting gradu-ates to develop commercial organic agricul-ture enterprises. This theme has been taken up in a new project, “The Work, Earn and Learn Programme for Developing Entrepreneurship in Organic Agriculture among Graduates in Nigeria” (WELP), funded by the UK Department of Innovation Universities and Skills, under the Education Partnerships in Africa (EPA) program. The overall aim of the project is to develop en-trepreneurship skills in organic agriculture among graduates in Nigeria, leading to the establish-ment of sustainable, profitable organic agriculture enterprisesGraduates are provided with specialized courses in organic agriculture and assisted in starting pro-ductive enterprises in rural and peri-urban areas where unemployment and under-employment are common. This project brings together gradu-ates, academics in organic agricultural and busi-ness, and private sector and government organi-zations to develop new enterprises. The project commenced with an intensive organic agriculture training course at UNAAB. Following national advertising 23 graduates were selected from 70 applicants to participate in a four-week intensive residential course covering all aspects of organic agriculture. This course was followed by three weeks work experience on private farms and en-terprises. Trainees were evaluated so that skills gaps could be identified and addressed in follow-up action plans. Strong partnerships are already developing between WELP and a few farmers who have already indicated interest in learning more about organic agriculture.Based on their field experience, trainees have drawn up feasibility studies for an organic enter-prise. The popular enterprises are the production of snails, cane rats and vegetables. The trainees will be allotted a budget and assisted to open a bank account, with the project leader as co-signa-tory to ensure that withdrawals are based on the approved plan. A regular quota of savings from sales is deposited to pay back the advance. The project will assist with acquisition of land for farming at UNAAB and with transport of produce in the first six months of the project. The five most promising graduates will be given the op-portunity to experience organic agricultural pro-duction in Benin and the UK.Mentoring by the project staff will help trainees cope with the challenges of developing and sus-taining the market for organic produce. This proj-ect will bridge the gap between skills acquired in the university and those required by the market place to succeed. In the wider context, the proj-ect will not only serve to develop the specific en-terprises supported, but will also stimulate, at the strategic level, greater business activity in organic agriculture and develop a model, which, if suc-cessful, will be replicable elsewhere in Nigeria and in the wider region.EDULINK – West AfricaFinally, the lessons learned in Nigeria from the EAP and EPA projects are being applied more widely in West Africa through a recently com-menced EU EDULINK ACP-EU Co-operation Program Project, “Institutional Capacity Building for Organic Agriculture in West Africa”. The re-gion is socially and culturally diverse but its na-tions share a high degree of food insecurity due to demographic changes, climate change and the ef-fects of intensive agriculture. Organic agriculture offers a sustainable solution to many environmen-33Ecology & Farming  |   august 2009tal and food security problems and has the po-tential to improve livelihoods in the region. The project partners are UNAAB, Nigeria; Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Benin; University of Cape Coast, Ghana; Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Ghana; and Njala University, Sierra Leone, and it is supported by Coventry University, UK.The partners will establish a West African Network for Organic Research and Training to train graduates, farmers, extension officers and civil society organizations in organic agriculture. The project partners will also undertake research that will underpin organic production, embed organic agriculture into the curriculum in West African universities and help develop locally ap-propriate organic standards, regulations and tech-nologies. The network will carry out a skills gap analysis in each of the West African states, and will fund a program of staff and research student mobility visits between partners within the re-gion. To expose staff from the West African part-ners to organic agriculture production, certifica-tion, import/export trade, marketing and research methodologies in the EU, staff from each West African partner country will visit the UK for a three-week orientation course. During the three-year program, a three-week “Concepts of Organic Agriculture” workshop will be held in Ghana that will acquaint lecturers with the basic principles of organic agriculture. In ad-dition, a two-week workshop and training ses-sion on curriculum development will be held in Nigeria and a one-week workshop in Benin will be convened to consider the issues of marketing and certification in West Africa. Partners will con-vene in Sierra Leone to share research results and to gain skills in research methodology appropriate for organic agricultural research. The overall aim of the above projects is to in-crease the level of expertise and synergies in all aspects of organic agriculture in West Africa. The immediate beneficiaries will be the higher edu-cation institutes where the projects will embed organic agriculture into their curriculum and re-search culture. The intermediate beneficiaries will be graduates who will then be able to participate in the international organic sector and make a contribution towards the development of locally appropriate standards, regulations and technolo-gies, and also to the production and marketing of West African organic products. The ultimate beneficiaries will be the farmers/producers whose livelihoods will improve. In the long term there will also be wider environmental benefits from the adoption of sustainable organic practices. AcknowledgementsThe authors acknowledge financial support from the UK Department for Education and Science for Project EAP136, the UK Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills for Project EPA 1.14 and the EDULINK ACP-EU Co-operation Programme Project 118-17 funded by the European Union.This could be YOUR advertising spaceContact outreach@ifoam.org for details.

Organic agriculture in higher education in West Africa

https://pure.coventry.ac.uk/ws/files/3958516/Organic%20agriculture%20in%20higher%20education.pdf

Organic agriculture in higher education in West Africa

Abstract

Similar works

Full text

Available Versions

Coventry University Pure Portal