"The Future of African Agriculture:  Perspectives of the next generation of African scientists."

Book Objective:  This book will showcase the opportunities for Africa’s future in the midst of on-going challenges from the perspective of the next generation of African scientists.  Key strategies will be highlighted through selected case studies and research articles, and will capture the views and opinions of Borlaug LEAP Fellows.

Target Audience:  Scientists and non-scientists involved in development work in Africa.  The book will provide perspectives of young African scientists and will serve as a tool for scientists, policy makers, governmental and non-governmental organizations, and other development actors involved in agriculture and extension activities in Africa.

Authors and Editors:  This book will be written for and by Africans.  The lead author on each paper will be a Borlaug LEAP Fellow.  The lead editors will be Brad Hounkpati, Saul Daniel Ddumba, Bernice Waweru, Montague W. Demment and Susan Johnson.

The book will have three sections:

• Section One:  Africa rising - small farmers feeding the continent
• Section Two:  Biotechnological advancement as a tool to enhance agricultural productivity in Africa
• Section Three: Opportunities and challenges in Africa's agriculture in 2050 and beyond

A list of suggested topics is included for each section but authors are NOT restricted to these topics.  Other issues not mentioned are most welcome.

SECTION ONE:  Africa rising – small farmers feeding the continent

Guiding question:  How has Africa’s agriculture grown over the past century and what are the factors responsible for this rise?

This section will address the enormous potential for agricultural growth in Africa, to feed not only the continent but the world by playing a major role in the global food market. To attest to this, Africa’s population is projected to double to 2.4 billion by 2050 with a very rapid urbanization. Such growth will enormously contribute to transforming Africa’s economy. African agriculture is growing faster than agriculture anywhere else. Africa’s natural resources sector has tripled its contribution to growth. And for the first time in history, African agriculture has grown, particularly in 10 sub-Saharan countries where annual output is at increases of 6 percent, more than twice the rate of population growth. Such agricultural growth will foster Africa’s agricultural green revolution by offering opportunities to young agricultural entrepreneurs for investments in agribusinesses, agrifood value chains and the like. In order to sustain such economic growth in Africa, efforts should be made to promote investment in agriculture, to increase access to the seeds, agronomic inputs, finances and improved storage facilities. Improving road infrastructure networks, national and regional agricultural markets, the management of natural resources to further Africa’s collective food security will be paramount. Women being the backbone of African agricultural workforce, a staggering 70%, enhancing and mainstreaming their efforts will play a critical role in increased production.

Examples of proposed topics (authors are NOT restricted to these topics, abstracts on other topics are most welcome):

1. Africa’s trends: Food production (the crops that feed Africa), population, health, education, markets, research, and others related to agriculture. What story can we get from these trends? How do they inform the future?
2. A brief history of Africa our motherland, the immense diversity present in cultures and creativity, from which our brilliant minds are born and bred. There-in lies the hope for Africa in our people, nurturing visionary leaders who are passionate about taking Africa to the next level.
3. What does Africa have that makes it a force to reckon with? Where are our strengths?
4. The importance and the role of women and children in taking Africa to the next level.
5. Challenges of food security in Africa: Natural causes: climate, soils, etc.           
6. Governance, economies, management and sustainability.
7. Documentation, records and data handling: How can Africa recognize and implement the culture of keeping records and investing in data management and observing technologies?

SECTION TWO:  Biotechnological advancement as a tool to enhance agricultural productivity in Africa.

Guiding question:  What role has technology played in the advancement of Africa’s agriculture?  What opportunities does technology have to offer for the future of Africa’s agriculture?

This section will emphasize the importance that biotechnology and technologies alike can play in fast-tracking agricultural productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The African smallholder farmer faces numerous challenges most of which require capital input to solve in the short term particularly pesticides, herbicides and irrigation schemes for improved crop protection and eventual productivity. Biotechnology efficiently implemented ensures that such a famer reduces such costs, by ensuring that the farmer has varieties with increased disease and pest tolerance/resistance for example, therefore increasing yields. The precision and versatility of today’s biotechnology enable improvements in food quality and production to take place more rapidly than when using traditional breeding.  At this point, policy makers in the African governments should be involved, in order to provide an enabling environment where the full potential of biotechnology can thrive through collective action.

Examples of proposed topics (authors are NOT restricted to these topics, abstracts on other topics are most welcome):

1. The importance of technology
2. Marker Assisted Technology and its role in enhancing breeding programmes
3. Why it is time African governments paid attention and start funding agricultural research in their countries?
4. How effective/important is the public-private partnerships in ensuring that technology gets to the farmer in time?
5. GMO crops: What are they? How important are they in enhancing food security in Africa?
6. Are the African governments ready for adoption of GMO crops/products i.e. policy development and regulation implementation in use of GMO crops/products?
7. Mechanization and its role in increasing production. How can lessons learnt from developed countries be applied and adapted to assist the African farmer?
8. How do intellectual property rights in Africa constrain technology development on the continent?

SECTION THREE:  Opportunities and challenges in Africa’s agriculture in 2050 and beyond.

Guiding question:  What opportunities does Africa’s agriculture have currently and in the future?  What are likely challenges and how can they be addressed?

The purpose of this section is to offer insights on strategies Africa needs to implement in order to enable the continent to exploit available opportunities and address its challenges in 2050 and beyond. One major opportunity that Africa has now and in the future is the presence of the largest proportion of arable land that is currently below its productive potential. Africa’s challenge, however, is the high increasing population and “youth bubble”. It is estimated that 1 Billion new Africans will be added by 2050. There is a need for Africa to shift in thinking, planning and behavior in order to be ready to thrive with enough food for its ever increasing population. Africa will need to come up with practices that would encourage the next-generation to join the agricultural industry, to reduce the agricultural footprint, to increase production on farms, to use resources efficiently, and practices that would reduce food waste. The ways to bring about the shift in thinking would be through education and research, and a change in countries’ agricultural policies.

Examples of proposed topics (authors are NOT restricted to these topics, abstracts on other topics are most welcome):

1. Best agricultural practices and lessons from the field. Examples -- Integrative agriculture as a means of making agriculture attractive to the youth, addressing growing populations and scarcity of land, and environmental sustainability.
2. How will the fast growing middle class in many African countries impact the small holder farmer?  How will the increased demand for higher quality foods and upscale urban markets affect employment sectors along the market value chain?
3. Agriculture as a business. What is needed to move the small holder farmer beyond subsistence farming? With the right inputs and agronomic practices, superior varieties and ready markets, there can be increased productivity. How can agri-business be encouraged among farmers to ensure improvements of livelihoods and incomes?
4. Cataloguing underprivileged crops and their potentials. The reach of the Green revolution in the 1960s did not extend into Africa, a great misfortune indeed. Where it did the countries became massive producers of world staples such as rice, wheat and corn on which Africa is dependent and largely imports. These crops however may not hold the key to alienating hunger in SSA, as they require high input costs and although are marketable, presence of too much of supply means the farmer does not fetch a good price for good returns despite the large investment.  Moreover, these crops lack the nutrition that is needed to alienate nutritional deficiencies curbing most communities. Under-privileged (orphaned) crops also termed as poor man’s crops such as sorghum, millet sweet potato and cassava to mention but a few, we believe are the key to a healthier Africa. These crops are highly nutritious, have low input cost, are fast maturing and environmentally sustainable and adaptable to the semi-arid arid climate of most of Africa. Increasing public awareness to increase their markets would mean a healthier and more sustainable solution to curb food insecurity and brain drain.
5. Food sovereignty vs. food imports: develop job creating agriculture to reduce mass rural flight
6. Food processing and value chain commodities
7. Partnerships: National, international and continental partnerships, Africans in Diaspora; – public, private and producer partnerships/engagement (4Ps)
8. Successful agricultural cases and up-scaling initiatives for increased food production: Can Africa come up with strategies that create funds to support innovative ventures? Encouraging the idea of Africans contributing some of their monies for greater cause.
9. Sustainable agriculture - encompassing simple technologies like agroforestry practices, mixed farming that can easily be adopted by smallholder farmers. Technologies that best increase productivity while conserving natural resources.
10. Women in agriculture.  What is needed to close the gender gap in agriculture?  What are the policy interventions that can help? What are the socio-economic factors at play? Why do female farming households produce less than men? Are women more risk-averse than men?
11. Youth empowerment. Is engaging youth the key to a food secure future in Africa?  What are the key challenges to attracting youth to agriculture?  Is agriculture the solution to unemployment amongst youth?
12. The role of governments.  What leadership and/or policies are needed to have an impact on food security in African countries?  Infrastructure, higher education, research, and the economic and industrial environment, what role does government play?  What role does the private sector play? How can trade policies facilitate in-country and continent-wide economic growth?