FARA, TETFund, UFV INAUGURATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND INNOVATION FELLOWSHIP FOR AFRICA

FARA, TETFund, UFV INAUGURATE GOVERNANCE FRAMEWORK FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH AND INNOVATION FELLOWSHIP FOR AFRICA

19/08/2020. ACCRA – Within the context of South-South and Triangular Cooperation, the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), the Tertiary Education Trust Fund of Nigeria (TETFund) and the Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) – Brazil; today inaugurated the Governance Framework for the Agricultural Research and Innovation Fellowship for Africa (ARIFA).

The historic event which was organized via zoom webinar on Wednesday 19, August 2020, climaxed two years of preparatory work and series of engagements with various stakeholders. This event places Nigeria as the first country to take advantage of the FARA-led ARIFA.

ARIFA is a component of FARA’s Holistic Empowerment for Livelihoods Program (HELP), which responds to the growing need for ‘fit-for-purpose’ agricultural research for development capacity in Africa.  ARIFA  aims  to  produce  a  new  generation  of  ‘fit-for-purpose’ workforce to reengineer the African agri-food sector, by applying the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) approach and the Innovation Platform concept to drive agricultural transformation and industrialization on the continent.

Under the FARA-TETFund-UFV partnership, TETFund will provide financial support to train 120 Nigerian academics in tailor-made MSc/PhD programs covering various fields related to agriculture at Universidade Federal de Viçosa (UFV) in Brazil. All ARIFA TETFund- sponsored scholars in the programme have been offered a tuition waiver for the courses of their choice.

ARIFA draws its uniqueness from organizing the fellowship recipients into cohorts of students assembled to acquire the full complement of skills and competences required by specific agricultural value chains. The Working Document and the Governance Structure have been put in place to kick start the implementation of the Brazilian component of the ARIFA programme from November 2020.

FARA has had a long-standing relationship with Brazil, having leveraged the South-South and Triangular Cooperation to establish and operationalize the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace and M-BoSs: building on the successes of the Marketplace (https://www.embrapa.br/en/marketplace) both hosted by EMPRAPA.

FARA has also entered into partnership with Instituto Brasil-Africa (IBA), Fortaleza, Brazil to serve as a platform for connecting Brazilian and African agribusiness sectors to take advantage of innovation- driven agribusiness opportunities on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean; and to leverage the power of Brazilian agricultural research and development facilities and the state-of-the art technologies.

About FARA

The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) is the apex continental organization responsible for coordinating and advocating for agricultural research-for-development (AR4D). FARA is the designated technical arm of the African Union Commission and the African Union Development Agency on matters concerning agriculture science, technology and innovation.

For more information, visit www.faraafrica.org or contact:

Chairman, Steering Committee for Implementation of FARA-TETFund-UFV Pedagogic Retooling Strategy, Dr. Mustapha Popoola on telephone +234 8066301780, email: popoolama@tetfund.gov.ng, Muhammed Sani Suleiman

+234 7065684473, email: muhammedss@tetfund.gov.ng, Dr. Aggrey Agumya aagumya@faraafrica.org, Christoph Essikpe cessikpe@faraafrica.org.