A view from the South

Yusuf Abubakar, Executive Secretary of Nigeria’s Agricultural Research Council, puts the discussions in an African perspective:

My hope for the new CGIAR is that it will give sub-Saharan African institutions the opportunity to participate more actively in CG activities. Particularly the increased focus on partnerships and the new format of the Global Conference should encourage broader collaboration between stakeholders, particularly between the CG Centres and national agricultural research systems. At the moment the link is missing in many cases; although around 50% of the CG funding goes to sub-Saharan Africa, impact on the ground is still small. Greater collaboration between the CG Centres and the NARS will ensure the international public goods produced by high-level research get to the people who need them. It is the NARS who are the closest to the farmers. A Mega Program for SSA would be a suitable vehicle for ensuring this happens. This includes collaborating together throughout the R&D continuum and value chain.