‘Integrated agric research systems key to Africa’s transformation’

Integrated systems research approach in agriculture is vital to sustainable transformation in Africa’s transformation with benefits including increase yield and farmers livelihoods, Nteranya Sanginga, director general, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) says.

The systems approach places the farmer at the centre and develops an understanding between the farm-household, environment in which the farmers operates, and the constraints they face; together with identifying and testing potential solutions to those constraints.

Systems approach also involves the dissemination of the most promising solutions to other farm households with similar problems.

Sanginga threw his support to systems research during his welcome address to participants at the “Systems Marketplace” workshop held recently in Ibandan.

The meeting was organised by the CGIAR Humidtropics Programme, in partnership with the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA).

The IITA director general reiterated the organisation’s commitment to integrated systems research, adding that even though CGIAR would no longer fund standalone systems research programs in its

new portfolio, IITA would continue to support systems research and site integration efforts to successfully help with Africa’s agricultural transformation agenda.

“The work of the Humidtropics programme has been shown to be very important for improving livelihoods of smallholder farmers, which is attracting the interest of governments and some key donors,” Sanginga said.

Kwesi Atta-Krah, director, integrated systems on Humidtropics Programme said system thinking was the way to go. “If we want transformation in Africa, we must approach issues in the agricultural sector with systems thinking because the African farmer thinks systems,” he said.

Presenting an independent and general perspective on systems research in the new CGIAR Research Programs (CRPs) portfolio, Maggie Gill, chair, Independent Science and Partnership Council (ISPC) stated that she was at the event to learn what systems research products were on offer and how new research programmes can integrate systems approaches to enhance their contribution to achieving the development outcomes.