10 Dec 2023

African countries need to work as a collective to ensure investment in research and development for sustainable agriculture.

Speaking during a panel discussion on Friday, under the sub-theme: Investment in the Agricultural Economy: Success and Hurdles during the 5th Edition of the Kusi Ideas Festival in Gaborone, the panelists called for research-driven policies in the agricultural sector for sustainability.

University of Nairobi Research, Innovation and Enterprise assistant vice chancellor, Prof Margaret Hutchinson expressed concern that the level of support for research and development was still very low at 1.3 per cent of the global budget that was used for research and development.

For that reason, Prof Hutchinson stressed that agriculture had basic economic and development benefits, hence African countries needed to come up with national strategies to address challenges of climate change in agriculture.

She also expressed concern that the private sector was still lagging in funding the research agenda to support the farmers. 

“We must ensure we fund our research and development because every policy should be driven by research,” she added.

Prof Hutchinson said agriculture, as a source of food security was the backbone of every country’s economy, hence the need for research and development to drive the innovation agenda for sustainability and impact.

She, therefore, called for participatory research where, not just governments, but every citizen pulled their weight, in their little spheres, to support the farmers for sustainable farming.

To deal with the impact of climate change on agriculture, International Development Consulting chief executive officer, Dr Tamani Nkhono-Mvula said the African continent should also invest more in science and technology.

“Over 90 per cent of production in Africa, is done under rain-fed, very little irrigation is happening on the continent. This is why climate change is becoming a problem because we do not have any other means of producing food rather than relying on rare rainfall, which is very much affected by climate change,” he said.

Unfortunately, Dr Nkhono-Mvula said research had shown that a two per cent increase in temperature was going to lead to about 50 per cent reduction in the production of cereals.

“It is time for us to ensure that we change our thinking. We should be thinking quite a lot in terms of how the climate is changing and how we can also change in terms of the types of investment, production system and diets that we have, to be able to mitigate against the challenges that we are facing as a result of climate change,” he added.

Tuli Block Horticultural Farmers Association chairperson, Mr Jan Pierre Roos expressed delight that he was able to learn from the deliberations, which he said would motivate him to do more.

Mr Roos emphasised that Africa should be providing for itself by looking into how to be self-sufficient and not to be reliant on Western countries.

He said they were ready and prepared to work with governments in ensuring food security within the African continent. He called for improved farming models and relaxed terms by financial institutions to support farmers’ efforts towards sustainable farming. Ends