FG tasked on multi-donor trust fund

A call has gone to the federal government to contribute to its Multi-Donor Trust Fund, MDTF in order to reinforce African ownership of the forum.
Executive Director of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, FARA, Dr Akinyemi Akinbamijo made the call during a courtesy visit to the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Akinwumi Adesina in Abuja.
Akinbamijo was accompanied by Dr Jimmy Smith, the Director-General of International Livestock Research Institute, ILRI and Dr Nteranya Sanginga, the Director-General of International Institute of Agriculture, IITA on the visit.
According to Akinbamijo, FARA was created to serve as a continental forum enhancing coordination of agricultural research.
He explained that the activities of the forum had been funded by international organisations in the past five years, adding that the funding would end by December 2013.
He emphasised the need for new donors to fund the project for the next five years which, underscored the reason for the visit to Nigeria.
The executive director said that the forum made Nigeria its first port of call, because of the believe that the Federal Government and the private sector were capable of providing the needed support.
He said that Nigeria had the capacity and potential to show the way for other African countries to contribute to FARA and to strengthen Africa’s contribution to the MDTF.
Akinbamijo observed the need for Africa to be fully involved in the funding of the forum, adding that support from the international bodies may not continue in the long run.
“Until Africa contributes immensely in terms of funding, it will not be fully Africa-owned and Africa-driven.
“Thus, not only will the initial investment by Nigeria leverage more investment into FARA, it will also increase the returns from increased investment.’’
The executive director Akinbamijo urged the Minister to become the “African Ambassador of Repute’’ that would help the forum along its challenging road, to ensure African support for the forum.
“Secondly, we would like to request the possibility of Nigeria championing a call for African countries to provide support for the functioning of FARA.
“Thirdly, through the same partnership of Nigeria, calling a meeting of development partners to discuss future support for continent-wide and regional programmes in agricultural research,’’ he said.
Adesina, in his remark, commended the activities of the forum and accepted to be the African Ambassador of Repute of FARA.
He said that Nigeria would support the activities of the forum because it was very crucial to research and development in Africa.
“FARA is crucial for Africa because it can help us to train the next generation of scientists that are going to help the frontier of Agriculture to grow in Africa.
“Also, it can help to bridge the gap between the international, national and regional research centres.’’
The minister underscored the fact that agriculture could not be separated from research for the sector to grow.
“When you talk of agriculture, you fundamentally have to address the issue of research and development.
“If you look at the experiences of other parts of the world like Asia that were able to get agriculture going and feed their citizens, they took advantage of research and development.”
Adesina further said it was high time Nigeria took take advantage of the international research community, to help it drive the activities of the Agriculture Transformation Agenda, ATA.
“Without science and technology, agriculture will not get anywhere; for us to meet the ATA goal in Nigeria, we have to invest in research.
“The current research system in Nigeria must change and become a more cohesive system that can deliver high level impact for the country.
“We will reorganise and restructure the Agricultural Research Council of Nigeria, ARCN to be exactly like Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuaria, EMBRAPA in Brazil,’’ the minister said.