Pushing the frontier of Africa’s agricultural universities to contribute to Africa’s growth and development

Critical to Africa’s growth and development is how universities push forward with their contribution in generating and applying requisite knowledge and innovations that are applicable and address the burgeoning challenges faced by communities and industry on the continent. This article shares the experiences of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) in working with the agricultural universities in Africa to push the contribution of universities to support the continents’ growth and development through a range of interventions including: i) piloting a new type of agricultural education including the use of student-centered outreach model and Community Action Research Programmes (CARPs), ii) strengthening agribusiness and entrepreneurship training in universities, and iii) integration and working with TVETs/ ATVETs. It is evident that innovativeness is required from within and among universities particularly in line with the actions, programmes and interventions they undertake. This is because the operational ecosystem is complex with diverse stakeholders, interventions, demands and rapidly evolving interests and needs of the industry and communities owing to transformations in agricultural sector that are taking place. Further, a commitment at the high-level institutional apex management is a requisite if success is to be attained in how universities engage to influence growth and development processes. In particular, the integration of the TVET/ATVET to work with universities is dependent on how Universities/TVET/ATVET managements appreciate the underlying value and principles of cooperation. Continued exploration involving multi-stakeholder and systems integrated perspectives are encouraged to allow for a forward and backward development and implementation of interventions that seek to enhance the contribution of universities to Africa’s growth and development.