Contributions of the West Africa Centre for Crop Improvement in Ensuring Food Security in West and Central Africa.

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.