Contributions of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement in Ensuring Food Security in West and Central Africa.
Loading...
Date
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Ghana
Abstract
Every individual has the right to be food secure yet there is a constant increase in global hunger
and malnutrition. Food insecurity leads to economic underdevelopment and poverty. Agricultural
research has over the years played a substantive role in increasing food production and driving
food security. However, in Africa, agricultural research, and its institutions, particularly those that
are not state-owned and funded have not been given enough attention. The West Africa Centre for
Crop Improvement (WACCI) is an example of such an institution. Despite its activities towards
achieving food security, information on the Centre is limited. This study highlighted the
contributions of WACCI in ensuring food security in West and Central Africa. This was a
qualitative study and involved in-person and online interviews with purposively selected persons
from WACCI, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and the Institute of
Agricultural Research for Development (IRAD) which are the National Agricultural Research
Institutions (NARIs) of Ghana and Cameroon respectively. The study also used additional
information from secondary data sources in the analyses. The study showed that WACCI’s
contributions do not only include training research scientists but also organising workshops for
farmers and extension officers as well as providing the platform for training the youth in
agribusiness. In addition, the study discovered that funding towards agricultural research is
averagely low on the continent which accounts for the slow progress made towards achieving zero
hunger as captured under the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 2. Most African countries are
unable to contribute 10% of their budgets towards agriculture as stipulated in the Comprehensive
African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP). It was also revealed a lack of resources
and political responsibilities or a combination of both accounted for reasons why the CAADP has
so far failed. The study recommended that a decrease in the percentage of contribution under the
CAADP will go a long way to ensure a stable annual investment towards the agricultural sector
and by extension agricultural research institutions. Additionally, centres like WACCI should be
set up in the various sub-regions and in different agricultural research fields, to facilitate the work
of the Centre and the NARIs.
Description
MA. International Affairs