National agric learning alliance inaugurated
A stakeholder learning platform has been set up to serve as a common place to discuss research findings and share knowledge and information to improve agricultural productivity.
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Known as the Ghana National Learning Alliance (GH-NLA), it will bring together various players along the agricultural value chain, especially smallholder farmers, researchers and policy makers to share information on evidence-based research findings which will help to inform agricultural policy formulation.
It is also expected to help smallholder farmers, especially women and the youth to adopt and implement sustainable agricultural intensification (SAI) knowledge in ways that enable them to benefit from agricultural development in Ghana.
The GH-NLA is one of the pillars of the Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA), a five-year programme funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the United Kingdom (UK).
In Ghana, the Learning Alliance, which seeks to generate new evidence and design tools and enable policy makers, researchers and private sector actors to engage regularly, is being facilitated by the Centre for Agriculture and Biosciences International (CABI), with support from the Science and Technology Policy Research Institute of the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR-STEPRI).
The programme is under the auspices of the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).
A Director at the MoFA, Mr Kwabena Arkorful, who launched the alliance on behalf of the sector minister, said the GH-NLA perfectly fitted into the ministry’s agenda to promote sustainable agriculture and thriving businesses for improved livelihoods.
He said to meet current and future needs of food and feeds, it was important to use agricultural resources efficiently while reducing environmental impacts, a practice which had become known as Sustainable Agricultural Intensification (SAI).
Although the agricultural sector’s contribution to national production was dwindling, the sector remained fundamental to food security and poverty reduction.
Mr Arkorful, therefore, pledged the support of MoFA to the success of the programme.
The West African Coordinator of CABI, Dr Victor Attuquaye Clottey, said there were several issues that needed discussions and policy decisions based on evidence.
“For instance, real estate take farmlands, the population has increased and needs to feed. So we need to use technology in a better way so that these resources remain for us for a long time,” he stated and added that there were social dimensions to resource allocation which required fora such as GH-NLA to discuss the issues to inform policy choices.
Working partners
The SAIRLA programme has commissioned research in six African countries to facilitate multi-scale learning on different ways of achieving SAI and its developmental implications.
The countries are Ghana, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia.
The GH–NLA will generate, share and facilitate the use of the SAI knowledge by decision makers in ways that enable poorer smallholder farmers particularly women and youth, to participate in and benefit from agricultural development in Ghana.
To achieve its mandate, the NLA works with representatives of a broad spectrum of boundary and strategic partners, including public sector policy decision makers and implementors, relevant ministries, Parliamentary Select Committee on Food and Agriculture, research institutions and civil society groups.
