Contribution of Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology to capacity building of agricultural researchers

The role played by smallholder farmers in Africa cannot be overemphasized. Smallholder agricultural production systems contribute significantly to the economic development as well as livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. The small scale production systems are characterized by a high level of diversity, low technology and vulnerability to adverse effects of climate change. As a result agricultural recommendations can neither be extensively borrowed from other systems nor applied over a wide area. Meeting the research needs of such systems requires highly knowledgeable and experienced agricultural researchers, who are scarce in Africa. Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology (MMUST) has been implementing the On-the-Job Capacity (OJCB) programme for agricultural researchers in developing countries funded by the United Nations University Institute for Advanced Studies of Sustainability (UNU-IAS) since 2012. The objective of the programme was to build the capacity of young agricultural researchers in their early research careers by involving them in research projects supervised by senior scientists. So far, MMUST has trained seven researchers and implemented four research projects. In addition to building the capacity of agricultural researchers, the programme also served to solve farmers problems and generate knowledge for agricultural development. This paper highlights the experiences of this programme at MMUST and the results of the research projects in which the trainees were involved.