Vol. 38, No. 18

2-2-2006
By: Mauricio Espinoza

Research and outreach partnerships create model of hope for African agriculture

When Richard Pratt was presented with the 2005 African Crop Science Society Award last December in Entebbe, Uganda, he accepted it not only as a personal recognition but also as a testament to the strong ties between Ohio State and Africa's academic and scientific community.

An associate professor of horticulture and crop science at the Ohio Agricultural Research and Development Center, Pratt is one of many researchers who have, for the past four decades, engaged in unique agricultural development activities in various African countries. He is a corn-breeding expert whose work with several Ugandan graduate students has yielded previously unavailable tools to fight devastating diseases of corn.

What started in the mid 1960s with faculty consultancies in Uganda and Nigeria has blossomed into a solid Ohio State presence on the African continent through research projects, training opportunities, study-abroad programs and participation in national advisory groups.

"The idea here is building up the capabilities of African universities, lifting the quality of their research and addressing real-life problems," said Pratt. "To accomplish this, you need to establish both formal and informal networks, a broader academic family, a 'buddy system' that allows you to work with the people you know and, in turn, with the people they know. In Uganda, for example, we've been developing these relationships both in times of peace and when the bullets were flying. OSU has shown a sustained commitment; we are not just a fair-weather friend."

The impact of this "buddy system" is evident by the number of Ohio State-trained African scientists who now hold leadership positions in both government and academic research institutions. Denis Kyetere is one of Pratt's former students, earning his Ph.D. in 1995. He was the first to identify a major gene that confers tolerance to the destructive maize streak virus and has led research projects at Uganda's National Agricultural Research Organisation and is currently its director-general.

Adipala Ekwamu, who received his doctoral degree in plant pathology in 1992, is a faculty member in the Department of Crop Science at Uganda's Makerere University. He also is coordinator of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, which, teaming with Ohio State's International Programs in Agriculture and Michigan State University, has embarked on a three-year training project to help students from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda earn degrees in agriculture-related fields.

"You can deliver technical assistance, but what the regional universities want the most are for their people to receive the degree training Ohio State can provide," said Mark Erbaugh, assistant director of the International Programs in Agriculture. "With well-trained faculty they can improve their own graduate degree programs. Governments may change but no one can take those degrees away."

For Motshwari Obopile, who earned his master's in entomology at Ohio State and came back last September to complete his doctoral degree, the university's continued assistance in training scientists, plus its research and outreach work in integrated pest management - a crop management approach that combines biological control, cultural practices and effective use of agrochemicals - are key to the development of Africa's agricultural systems, especially for small, disadvantaged farmers.

"Traditionally, African farmers have utilized a mixed cropping system in which crops such as maize, millet and cowpeas are grown on the same plot, thus leading to fewer pest problems," said Obopile. "Now what we want to do is to increase yields by teaching farmers about improved agronomic practices like crop rotation, scouting for pests, timely application of pesticides to reduce environmental contamination and cost, and improving the fertility of the soil."

Pratt agrees.

"The Green Revolution model, with its emphasis on increasing inputs to increase outputs, didn't work in Africa," he pointed out. "My philosophy is a more balanced strategy, with both offense and defense. Integrated pest management is a good model to accomplish this, but unless science is taken into the field and makes an impact in the livelihood of subsistence farmers, there isn't much contribution."

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