Assessing the prospects for tertiary agricultural education in Africa

In order to reduce hunger and poverty across the African continent and build international competitiveness of the African agricultural sector, it will be necessary to trigger and maintain substantial rates of annual agricultural productivity growth. However, this will not be possible without substantial changes and reforms that address all aspects of agriculture in the continent. African leaders and other important stakeholders recognise that Tertiary Agriculture Education (TAE) in Africa can have an important role on it. In fact, it has been increasingly understood that suitable TAE might be a necessary condition for the training of an African workforce able to lead the necessary changes. The main objective of this Prospective Study (PS) is to analyse, with a medium to long term perspective and a continental African based focus, what changes are expected in the agri-food sector, and how these changes will and should affect the development of TAE in Africa (including higher education, R&D and technology transfer). The study includes a systematic literature review, a prospective analysis using the Delphi method, and focus groups to validate and discuss the results. The literature review allowed to identify the importance of several interlinked factors that may severely limit agricultural productivity in Africa. Some changes in this respect are currently being addressed by a number of African institutions that have taken up the effort to reform African TAE. Preliminary results of the survey will also be presented, identifying possible areas of development of TAE in Africa.