Experts consider the future of farming in Africa

Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals is a global challenge, becoming acute in the face of climate change, natural resource degradation and diseases affecting humans, animals and plants.

Technologies and practices that promote sustainable intensification on smallholder farms vary spatially according to the diverse ways in which economic transformation and population dynamics are influencing the costs of land, farm labour and cash inputs such as fertilizers and improved seeds.

To this end, reports have been commissioned on pioneering efforts in East and Southern Africa to engage and empower farmers and communities through approaches that specifically support disadvantaged youth and women.

A panel of experts will reflect on these challenges and initiatives in the second of four dialogues of the Alliance for African Partnership (AAP) titled: ‘The future of farming to meet sustainable development goals in Africa: Reflections on soil health and policy’.

The AAP was co-created by Michigan State University (MSU) and African thought leaders in 2016 and is a consortium of MSU and 10 leading African universities.

The dialogue on farming, which will take place on 14 April, is co-hosted by Global IDEAS, a multimedia project by Deutsche Welle, which reports on conservation and climate change, and MSU’s Centre for Gender in Global Context, an interdisciplinary centre in international studies and programmes focused on gender, feminist theory, sexuality, and women’s studies.

The other co-hosts are MSU’s department of agricultural, food and resource economics (AFRE) and the AFRE Food Security Group, a team of faculty and graduate students from various departments who believe that food and nutrition policy, informed by solid empirical evidence that is generated jointly with local partners, can transform economies and lives in low-income countries.

Sustainable agriculture intensification

Speakers include John Olwande of the Regional Network of Agricultural Policy Research Institutes (ReNapri) and Egerton University in Kenya; Saweda Liverpool-Tasie, Lisa Tiemann, Alison Nord and Sieg Snapp of MSU and Katrin Kuhlmann, of New Markets Lab, a non-profit organisation working on commercial legal and regulatory reform in developing markets so those systems work for stakeholders of all sizes, and Georgetown University.

Edmundo Barrios of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Nancy Mungai, also from Egerton University, Keston Njira, Daimon Kambewa and Wezi Mhango of Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources in Malawi and Regis Chikowo of MSU and the University of Zimbabwe will also participate.

Dan Teravest of Our-Sci.net, which supports the development of research capacity in communities through software, hardware and training, is another participant.

During the dialogue, a panel discussion will also take place to reflect on the frontline experiences presented, and consider how sustainable agriculture intensification can be further supported and scaled out, in a rapidly changing world.

A panel discussion will include Cheryl Palm of the University of Florida, Rob Groot of the International Fertilizer Development Center, Martin Fregene of the African Development Bank and Christian Witt of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The AAP’s dialogue series will, in future sessions, also explore topics such as race and economic development.

On 12 May a sharper focus will be placed on race relations and the role of higher education in Africa and the Global African diaspora. The last dialogue on African economic philosophies will be hosted in June.

Click here if you want to register for the next event in the AAP’s dialogue series. University World News is the AAP’s media partner.