Rwandan President, Paul Kagame Opens 7th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) And General Assembly Of FARA

Kigali, 13^th June, 2016: The President of the Republic of Rwanda, His Excellency Paul Kagame, has opened the 7th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) and the General Assembly of the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) at Camp Kigali, Rwanda.

The four day Forum and Exhibition attracted over 1,500 participants, including Ministers of State and Policy makers, experts in Agriculture and stakeholders engaged in African agricultural research and development to discuss how research can be used to improve agriculture on the continent.

The theme for the event is: “Apply Science, Impact Livelihoods.” It will focus on the operationalisation of the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa at country level.

The triennial event will take stock of achievements in Africa’s agricultural research and reflect on how to enhance this sub-sector’s contribution to the continent’s agenda for accelerated economic and social transformation.

Plenary sessions will be held to highlight the Science Agenda and the evolving policy and institutional changes in the STI-for- agriculture landscape in Africa and their implications for the implementation of the Science Agenda.

There will be side meetings to deliberate on the five sub-themes of the conference namely; Institutional systems and policies for making science work for African agriculture Sustainable productivity growth, value chains and profitable agribusinesses, Human capital development and the Youth, Sustainable financing of STI for African agriculture and Megatrends in African Agriculture

The General Assembly will be held on the fourth and final day. All through the four days, the market place / exhibition of innovations (products and services) will be open.

A special feature of the conference and exhibition is a day dedicated to showcasing Rwanda and its advancements in agriculture and research.

Expected output and outcomes of the Forum include an enhanced understanding of the agenda for scaling up the assimilation of science and harnessing the potential of STI to drive agricultural transformation in Africa, buy-in for the action plan to operationalize the Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A) at country level and the policy and institutional changes required for the plan to be successfully implemented.