The chairperson, African Union Commission (AUC),
Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, said universities across Africa must harmonize their
agricultural research and teaching programmes to help modernize farming on the
continent, NaijaAgroNet
reports.
She stressed that this would encourage young people to
study agriculture and then introduce better farming technologies. “The harmonization
of agricultural science is the first step in streamlining university courses to
attract young people to science and technology,” she told delegates.
NaijaAgroNet
gathered that the Ethiopia’s Prime Minister, Haile mariam Desalegn and Dlamini
Zuma were among discussants on African farmers’ inability to adopt technologies
and methods that could make agriculture more efficient, saying that young
people in Africa have little interest in studying agriculture at university
because they see farming as a laborious, low-income profession.
According to the UN’s Economic Commission for Africa
(ECA), the continent imported 83 per cent of its food in 2013, despite more
than half the population being smallholder farmers. Having a greater number of
trained agricultural scientists would help increase yields for food grown in
Africa.
“We import a ridiculous amount of food, and still many suffer from malnutrition. All those initiatives to improve food security will not come to anything if we do not invest more in science and research, and get more young people into agricultural sciences,” Dlamini Zuma said.
Speakers told the UN’s Third Financing for Development Conference in Ethiopia recently that universities should align their agricultural science efforts and collaborate with each other to compete internationally, NaijaAgroNet learnt.
“We import a ridiculous amount of food, and still many suffer from malnutrition. All those initiatives to improve food security will not come to anything if we do not invest more in science and research, and get more young people into agricultural sciences,” Dlamini Zuma said.
Speakers told the UN’s Third Financing for Development Conference in Ethiopia recently that universities should align their agricultural science efforts and collaborate with each other to compete internationally, NaijaAgroNet learnt.
The African Union’s Agenda 2063, a 50-year development
plan for the continent, says widening the use of modern agricultural technology
would help secure a steady food supply and improve farmers’ contribution to
economic growth.
Cyriacus Nnaji/GEE
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