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The International Institute of Tropical Agriculture is establishing an endowment fund to train African students in the field of tropical agriculture
An Endowment Fund in honour of Lukas Brader, the retiring director-general of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA), is to be established by the IITA Board of Trustees, to support African students in the field of tropical agriculture. The main objective of the Fund is to train young scientists from sub-Saharan Africa, to carry out research and to seek support for the region’s agricultural development. This was announced by the Chairman of the IITA‘s Board of Trustees, Enrico Porceddu, at a special seminar in honour of Lukas Brader, retiring after eleven years of service in the Institute.
Lukas Brader joined the IITA as the fifth director-general of IITA, on 4 December 1990, with a distinguished track-record of achievements in scientific research management in tropical African agriculture.
The Board’s Chairman said the Endowment Fund is aimed at producing enough financial resources for the Lukas Brader Fellowship for Post Graduate students. He said the Fellowship will be announced every year, explaining that the first candidates for the Fellowship will be selected in the first quarter of 2002 after the rules and regulations guiding the Fellowship Award are put in place by the Board.
The Board’s Chairman said the establishment of the Fund is «in recognition of the monumental achievements of Lukas Brader while he served as the IITA‘s Chief Executive Officer for the past eleven years. Lukas Brader played a great role in fostering and strengthening cooperation between the IITA and other national research institutes in sub-Saharan Africa».
Also speaking during the special seminar, Nigeria’s President Olusegun Obasanjo described Lukas Brader as a friend of Nigerian farmers. The President said: «Lukas Brader brought a lot of development to Nigerian agriculture by the improvement of the IITA‘s mandate* crops, to the extent that Nigeria has now become the largest world producer of cassava, yams, and cowpeas». President Obasanjo remarked that the impact of the IITA‘s achievements in soybean, maize, plantain and banana production, in tropical Africa, has been felt far and wide». He added: «Nigeria has benefited immensely from the work of the IITA, which has brought tremendous genetic improvement on all its mandate crops as well as soil fertility and soil conservation». President Obasanjo, who is himself is a farmer, said most Nigerian farmers will no doubt miss Lukas Brader when he retires from the IITA.
Sustainable growth and development
Others paying tribute to Lukas Brader, included some senior African agricultural research directors and leaders of agricultural organizations with whom the IITA works closely. One of them, Joseph Mukiibi, a former Trustee of the IITA and now Chairman of the Uganda-based Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), said: «The most critical need of African agricultural development today is research to support sustainable growth and development». He called on African countries to invest more in science training and mathematics, from secondary school to university levels. He is a firm believer that the development of manpower for African agriculture should start at secondary school level. Dr. Mukiibi said that by so-doing, there will be an effective and sustainable manpower development in the agricultural sector for the future.
Professor Francis Idachaba of the International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR), The Hague, is a well-known Nigerian economist and a former university vice-chancellor. He presented a paper on «Appropriate agricultural research and development policies for Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa». Referring to the dwindling funding pattern of agricultural research in Africa, Professor Idachaba said the private sector should play a major role in this regard. While commending the role played by the private sector in the funding of coffee and tea research in East and Southern Africa, he urged West and Central African governments to involve the private sector in the funding of agricultural research. He said efforts must be made to develop the stake-holder capacity of interested parties such as farmers, transporters, those in the food-storage business, small entrepreneurs, so that they can access information on agricultural matters at all levels. Professor Idachaba also called for an effective communication of agricultural research to all stake-holders. He criticized what he called «poor communication of agricultural research», adding that, «we are doing a poor job of salesmanship, in that we should be informing all those concerned, about how agricultural research can contribute to economic development».
Effective policies needed
Dr. Akin Adesina works with the Rockefeller Foundation. He spoke about the «Returns of Investment in Agricultural Research in sub-Saharan Africa». He called for «effective agricultural policies and implementation strategies that will enable farmers to benefit from improved agricultural technologies which will enhance productivity. There must be sustained investment in agricultural research so there can be a meaningful contribution in that sector for agricultural development». He concluded: «If there is no investment today, there will be no ladder to climb tomorrow».
In his response, Lukas Brader recalled some of his statements when he took over as director-general of the Institute some eleven years ago. He had then said: «I have no doubt that we can succeed in providing African farmers and governments with tools to reach our shared goals of great improvements in agricultural production, notwithstanding enormous problems». He added: «Today, I still believe in this statement. A key part of the process of creating opportunities and realizing successful results, lies in our collaborative efforts with the national agricultural research systems. Western ed-ucation may teach us all we need to know about the various agricultural disciplines; but that knowledge becomes useful in Africa only when it can be transformed into means and methods that suit the existing production systems».
Lukas Brader paid glowing tributes to the African farmers whose knowledge of farming and food production on many occasions is far beyond the knowledge of educated scientists.
Author’s note: The IITA‘s «mandate crops» are the crops for which donors provide funding for the Institute to carry out its research. They form the major staple foodcrops in sub-Saharan Africa. The crops are: Cassava, (tapioca or yuca); cowpeas (beans); maize (corn); soybeans; plantain/bananas; yams. The improvement is aimed at producing crops that are disease-resistant, early-maturing and high-yielding.
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