Centre for Research, Agricultural Advancement, Teaching Excellence and Sustainability in Food and Nutritional Security (CREATES-FNS) at Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST)

With nearly 850 million hungry people globally in 2012, there are social, ethical and political imperatives to put more emphasis on food and nutritional security, particularly in the Eastern and Southern Africa region. The region is characterized by high food and nutrition insecurity, ranging between 37% and 76%. Efforts to ensure food and nutrition security in the region have been compounded by a number of challenges, including poor agricultural productivity caused by poor agricultural practices, prevalent diseases and pests, climate variability, low plant and animal genetic potential, and also food loss, which is characterized by reduction in quantity and quality of the produced food along the value chain. Furthermore, as a consequence of spatial expansion of agriculture in order to produce more food, a number of inadvertent negative consequences have resulted. These include the loss of biodiversity and a threat to endangered species as well as the close interactions between humans and wildlife, which has precipitated outbreaks of diseases that are threatening survival of humans and their livestock. To address these complex challenges, Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST), through the World Bank’s African Centers of Excellence (ACE II) initiative, is creating a unique framework in the region by establishing an African Centre for Research, Agricultural Advancement, Teaching Excellence and Sustainability in Food and Nutritional Security (CREATES-FNS) in order to build capacity in the region to train and raise a critical mass of specialized and skilled human capital that can use a multidisciplinary approach to ensure environment-sustainable food and nutritional security. The Centre will produce a pool of creative and innovative experts who are able to generate novel solutions to today’s industrial needs and challenges. Graduates with expertise on “Sustainable Agriculture, Food and Nutritional Sciences, Biodiversity and Conservation as well as Human Health and Biomedical Sciences” will be able to take up high-level career positions in research for development, industrial, agricultural production, healthy food and nutritional sciences.