Partnerships Issue 10 - African Agricultural Technology Foundation

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The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa receives USD 3 million as it marks its 5th anniversary OFAB Programming Committee members during the review and planning meeting held in Accra, Ghana in May 2012. The Open Forum on Agricultural Biotechnology in Africa (OFAB) marked its 5 th anniversary since it was launched in September 2006. The celebration, which also saw long-serving country organising committee members recognised for dedicated service, was held alongside the Forum’s 2012 annual review and planning meeting in Accra, Ghana from 1–3 May 2012. The meeting brought together representatives from the five African countries of Kenya, Uganda, Nigeria, Tanzania and Ghana. The Forum aims to enhance knowledge-sharing and awareness on biotechnology and to contribute to building an enabling environment for decision making on agricultural biotechnology in Africa. “Biotechnology has delivered substantial benefits to farmers around the world but Africa still lags behind in exploiting its potential partly due to lack of an enabling environment for the development and use of agricultural biotechnology,” said Hon Sherry Ayittey, Ghana’s Minister for Environment, Science and Technology who was the guest of honour during the celebration. The Minister went on to say that discussions over agricultural biotechnology and its application are surrounded by misperceptions due to lack of or conflicting information. “This is a challenge that decision makers who must make the right decisions in the face of a rapidly growing population, declining agricultural productivity and reduced resources available for agricultural research continue to face,” she added. Dr Kyetere, the Executive Director of AATF, said that OFAB addresses the existing biotechnology information gaps and concerns by facilitating the interaction of scientists involved in biotechnology research with journalists, policy makers, civil society, farmers and other stakeholders. Partners from the five countries lauded the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation for supporting the program through a grant of USD 3 million in March 2012. The additional funding will support the current activities of OFAB in the countries and also expand activities outside their current monthly meetings to cover a wider geographical scope and organise targeted biotech communication events for specific categories of stakeholders. The Forum will also open another country chapter in a francophone country before the end of 2012. Currently, OFAB, an initiative of AATF, operates through holding monthly meetings in five countries (Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Nigeria and Ghana), where topics of interest in agricultural biotechnology are presented and discussed. Lessons and experiences gained during the five years that OFAB has been in operation point to the potential that OFAB offers in creating better understanding and appreciation of agricultural biotechnology in SSA to address biotechnology information needs of policy makers and the general public n For more information visit http://www.aatf-africa.org/news__events/press_releases/en/ http://www.ofabafrica.org/links.php?id=17 or contact Nancy Muchiri (n.muchiri@aatf-africa.org) 2
Project updates Cassava Mechanisation and Agro-processing Project set for take-off Smallholder farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) who produce more than half of the world’s supply of cassava are set to benefit from access to improved cassava varieties and high quality processing equipment with the initiation of a new project known as the Cassava Mechanisation and Agroprocessing Project (CAMAP) being implemented by AATF. One of the constraints to cassava production in the region is lack of appropriate machinery for planting, harvesting and processing, yet the potential for increasing the productivity of the crop is huge with over 300 possible cassava products. The objective of the project is to ensure food security and poverty reduction by improving the mechanisation and agro-processing of cassava along the value chain by smallholder farmers in SSA. Cassava production and processing technologies will contribute to sustainable improvements in market access, food security, and enhance incomes and livelihoods of farmers, processors, and marketers in the cassava sector. The project will work with partners to develop competitive cassava commodity chains for a reliable supply of processed products for food and non-food industrial use by upgrading and expanding traditional planting, harvesting and processing techniques in selected countries in Africa. The project is set to benefit more than 3.5 million smallholder farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi, Zambia and Uganda. The specific objectives of the project are to; negotiate access and transfer of cassava mechanisation and agro processing technologies for use by smallholder farmers; increase cassava production through mechanisation across the entire value chain and thus reduce post-harvest losses and demands for intensive labour; add value to the cassava industry through value addition and creation of market linkages by linking smallholder farmers with agro processing centers; and build capacity of local entrepreneurs to design prototypes machines, manufacture, maintain and repair the necessary equipment for cassava planting, harvesting and processing. Over the last five years, AATF has been exploring various possibilities towards improving the viability of cassava production through mechanisation and agro-processing. AATF has engaged with the various cassava processing equipment manufacturers to work directly with African entrepreneurs to produce high quality cassava planting and processing equipment. “Manufacturers from Brazil, one of the world’s leading cassava producers have agreed to work with AATF to give farmers access to high quality cassava processing equipment” says Mr George Marechera, the Business Development Manager at AATF. “We have also engaged with cassava farmers, processors, government departments and research organisations in Nigeria and Zambia, the target pilot countries A cassava farmer with her produce - the CAMAP project is set to benefit more than 3.5 million smallholder farmers in five target countries of Nigeria, Zambia, Uganda, Malawi and Kenya. for the project, to understand the cassava sector and also identify potential project partners.” The cassava equipment being targeted by the project includes planters, cultivators, boom sprayers, stem cutters, diggers, washers and peelers, graters, driers and among others. AATF will facilitate and coordinate mechanization at farm level and link farmers to service providers and fabricators in the project n For more information contact George Marechera (g.marechera@aatf-africa. org) Compliance management training for cowpea and rice projects held A training on confined field trials (CFT) compliance management was held in Accra, Ghana, in July 2012, to enhance the capacity of teams responsible for managing the Maruca Resistant Cowpea and Nitrogen Efficient Water Efficient Salt Tolerant (NEWEST) Rice projects CFTs in Ghana, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. The training, which also included the sharing of CFT compliance management experiences from the Cowpea project in Nigeria and Burkina Faso, was especially useful to the teams in Ghana, who are preparing to install the first CFTs for the cowpea and rice projects as soon as regulatory approval is given by the country’s National Biosafety Committee. Nigeria and Burkina Faso are in the process of conducting the fourth and second Cowpea CFTs respectively n Participants during the compliance training held in Accra in July 2012 For more information contact Francis Nang’ayo (f.nang’ayo@ aatf-africa.org) 3
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Partnerships Issue 10 - African Agricultural Technology Foundation

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