FARA

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa.

FARA – Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa

Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa, established at 12 Anmeda Street, Roman Ridge, Accra, PMB CT 173 Cantonments Accra Ghana, represented by Dr.Oseyemi Akinbamijo, the Executive Director, or their authorized representative.

Activities

FARA – Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa – is the coordinator of LEAP4FNSSA project. FARA is the apex organization bringing together and forming coalitions of major stakeholders in agricultural research and development in Africa. FARA is the technical arm of the African Union Commission (AUC) on rural economy and agricultural development and the lead agency of the AU’s New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) to implement the fourth pillar of the Comprehensive African Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP), involving agricultural research, technology dissemination and uptake. FARA’s vision: reduced poverty in Africa as a result of sustainable broad-based agricultural growth and improved livelihoods, particularly of smallholder and pastoral enterprises.

FARA’s mission:

creation of broad-based improvements in agricultural productivity, competitiveness and markets by supporting Africa’s sub-regional organizations (SROs) in strengthening capacity for agricultural innovation. FARA’s Value Proposition: to provide a strategic platform to foster continental and global networking that reinforces the capacities of Africa’s national agricultural research systems and sub-regional organizations. FARA will make this contribution by achieving its Specific Objective of sustainable improvements to broad-based agricultural productivity, competitiveness and markets. Key to this is the delivery of three results, which respond to the priorities expressed by FARA’s clients.

These are:

1. Envisioning Africa’s Agriculture through strategic analysis, fore sighting and partnerships,

2. Developing capacity to deliver the envisioned future and,

3.Developing the enabling environment.

FARA’s website is www.fara-africa.org In the project, FARA contributes mainly to WP 5 (in particular organization of events, like general assemblies, in Africa) and WP4 (Communication and project management), and to a lower degree to WP 1(stakeholder engagement, advocacy) and WP2 (Improving the EU-AU partnership, Actor Alliances).

Update:

As from 1 July 2021, CENTRE DE COOPERATION INTERNATIONALE EN RECHERCHEAGRONOMIQUE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT – C.I.R.A.D. EPIC will no longer assume the roleof coordinator and will be replaced by FORUM FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH IN AFRICA,GHANA.

People

Dr Irene Annor-Frempong is the Director for Research and Innovation at ‘The Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa’ (FARA). By training, she is an Animal Scientist with strong focus on Research Methodology and has over 20 years of rich experience as a research scientist, manager and educationist. She obtained her PhD from the Veterinary School, University of Bristol, UK and an MSc in Animal Production Science from Wageningen University and Research in the Netherlands. She graduated with a BSc. (Hons) Agriculture and a Diploma (Education) both from University of Cape Coast, Ghana. Prior to joining FARA, she worked in research institutes including; FAP Research Station, Rekenholtz- Zurich in Switzerland and at the IVO, Zeist in the Netherlands. She also worked as Senior lecturer and coordinator of research in universities and other tertiary education institutions in Ghana, Nigeria and Lesotho. In FARA, she has led the development and coordination of continent-wide programs including the programs on ‘Strengthening the Capacity of Agricultural Research and Development for Africa’ (SCARDA) and the ‘Universities, Business Research in Agricultural Innovation’ (UniBRAIN) as well as ‘Africa Human Capital for Science, Technology and Agri-preheurship for Food security’ (AHCSTAFF) programme. She serves on a number of Boards and Steering Committees of continentwide and global initiatives including the World Bank ‘Africa Centres of Excellence’ (ACE) program and a member of a number of professional bodies with several refereed papers in reputable journals to her credit. She served on the Technical Committee of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) and the Consultative Advisory Group on Partnership for Skills in Applied Sciences, Engineering and Technology (PASET). As Director of Research and Innovation, she currently leads the strategic orientation for research and innovation of FARA and the operationalization of the continental framework on the ‘Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa’ (S3A) in African countries.

Dr. Oluwole Fatunbi is the Lead Specialist for Innovation Systems and Partnerships in FARA, he holds a doctorate degree in agronomy with specialization in farming systems/ soil fertility management from the University of Ibadan, Nigeria. He has over 16 years professional experience in agricultural research and development with key competence in agricultural systems transformation/ innovation systems, Soil fertility management, farming systems agronomy, sustainable agricultural land management / land degradation, technology transfer and research management. He is a “man of letter” with over 100 publications to his credit. He is also an adjunct Professor for Innovation Systems at the University of Fort Hare, South Africa.