Better PhD programmes to boost agriculture in Africa

Although agriculture is vital to sustain life and the economy in Africa, the productivity
of the sector is very low, leading to widespread food insecurity and poverty. To increase growth, agricultural research and training and technology development need to be strengthened. Attainment of this goal requires a strong human resource base to drive agricultural innovations and development process.

The project “Strengthening capacity of universities in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa to offer quality graduate programmes” responds to this challenge and aims to build capacities in African universities in training high quality human resources and strengthening research in the agricultural sector.

The project is complementary to the continent wide initiative by the Forum for
Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) to build Africa’s human resource and institutional capacity at Master’s and doctoral levels. The project will contribute to FARA’s aims by building capacity to train PhD graduates, and strengthening university competencies in training and research management.

To achieve these goals, five universities from Uganda, Kenya, Malawi and Zambia will set up an African inter-regional network together with an association of universities in Eastern and Southern Africa. The network will draw lessons from the experience in PhD training of Montpelier Sup Agro in France.