STI still lags, undermining Africa’s prospects for harnessing technologies for sustainable development.

African governments, policy makers, and regional economic communities have been urged to enhance strong political will to further integrate Science, Technology, and Innovation (STI) in Africa for sustainable economic growth and agricultural transformation. It was revealed that if the continent is to address socio-economic challenges facing the majority of the Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, there is an urgent need for African Governments to increase funding for STI to transform agricultural development in Africa.

These calls were made by experts during the Second Africa -wide Science, Technology, and Innovation High Level Conference, organised by AATF in collaboration with the African Union Development Agency-NEPAD (AUDA-NEPAD) and the Government of Rwanda in April 2022.   

The high level conference meeting, graced by Continent’s decision makers and influencers, leaders from governments, businesses, civil society, international organisations, researchers, academia, and the youth, recommended that African governments create an enabling policy environment to harness the benefits accruing from modern agricultural innovations such biotechnology, gene-editing and other emerging technologies in order to transform the livelihoods of smallholder farmers in African countries.

Dr. Canisius Kanangire, the Executive Director of AATF, noted that agriculture sector is rapidly expanding in Africa to embrace a wide range of concepts to effectively meet the increase in demand for food and nutrition security. Paramount to this process, he added, is the need to integrate and explore STI to drive agricultural productivity for prosperity among farmers in Africa.

“Creating an enabling environment for technology and innovation is an essential requirement in enabling African countries to address constraints that impede agricultural, environment and health development,” said Dr. Kanangire.

He observed that investing in new farming technology for Africa—from better seeds to digital tools to machinery—is best opportunity for transforming African agriculture into an engine of economic growth that will have benefits far beyond the farm sector.

“Most Africans are smallholder farmers, and agriculture is their best opportunity to secure a more promising future. But millions remain impoverished because, unlike farmers in other parts of the world, they lack consistent access to targeted, affordable agriculture innovations that would allow them to prosper, he added.

Hon. Geraldine Mukeshimana, Minister of Agriculture and Animal Resources, Government of Rwanda, pointed out that scaling up STI in agriculture is key in building sustainable and resilient food systems.

She noted that it is a paradox that Africa is not a food powerhouse yet about 60 per cent of arable land is found in Africa. This, according to her, is caused by the insufficient use of technological innovations to increase productivity, eliminate post-harvest losses, and add value to agricultural produce.

She called for effective implementation of the Science, Technology, and Innovation for Africa (STISA-2024) Strategy that was adopted by the African Union in 2014.

“This strategy requires sustained investment in research and development (R&D) as well as getting the new technologies and innovations into the hands of stakeholders in key sectors of our economies including agriculture,” she said.

She stated that the Government of Rwanda’s Vision is to leverage the transformative capabilities of STI and R&D output to become a globally competitive knowledge-based economy and to address modern social-economic challenges.

According to Mr Martin Bwalya, the acting Director of Knowledge Management and Programme Evaluation at AUDA-NEPAD, there is need to adopt sustainable agriculture technologies that cover the entire spectrum of farming systems.

“Farmers must adopt the appropriate technology and management practices in the specific agro-ecological environment within the appropriate policy framework for them to be implemented,” he pointed out, adding that all farming systems have the potential to be locally sustainable including intensive conventional farming to organic farming.

He explained that agriculture is becoming more integrated into the global food chain and market, while environmental, food safety and quality, and animal welfare regulations all have an increasing impact on the industry.

“It faces new challenges in meeting rising food demand, remaining internationally competitive, and producing high-quality agricultural products. Simultaneously, it must achieve sustainability goals in the context of ongoing agricultural policy reform, increased trade liberalization, and the implementation of multilateral environmental agreements agreed to by relevant ministers in AU member states,” he noted.

In conclusion, the experts stated that STI should be viewed as an enabler for development, with the most important criteria for measuring its impact and effectiveness in Africa must be based on carefully selected, context-specific development indicators that value and incorporate the number of jobs generated, poverty reduction metrics, reductions in inequality and the social interactions. Deliberate is needed to sustain continental wide conversations on STI for the sustainable economic, cultural, and social development of the African continental.