FARA organized a workshop on the development of the proposal for the African Agricultural Research Programme (AARP) which held on 10 and 11 October 2016 in Accra, Ghana. The workshop brought together Agricultural Scientists from several institutions including the CGIAR, NARS and higher education networks; private sector actors and policy makers. The objective of this workshop was to:
1.Generate substantive inputs to the design and content of an AARP Concept Note for AfDB and agree next steps and contributions necessary to support this.
2.Identify and prioritize critical AARP research outcomes and activities to support delivery of the AfDB-supported Technologies for African Agriculture Transformation (TAAT) programme.
3.Identify and prioritize critical enabling intervention activities and outcomes to support delivery of the AARP agenda
4.Build wider understanding and ownership of the AARP and how it relates to the TAAT programme.
AARP emerged from the 7th African Agriculture Science Week (AASW7) Kigali round-table in June 2016 when the African Development Bank requested FARA to co-ordinate the development of a mega programme on agricultural research. AARP’s main objective is to strengthen the continent’s agricultural research systems in such a way that it is transactional and solution oriented leading to increased productivity, profitability and sustainability for Africa.