Preparing Universities in Africa and Asia for the New Agriculture

Abstract

This project has four interconnected components: the first is helping universities and consortia of universities in Africa and South Asia prepare a landscape analysis of the magnitude and country-specific challenges and funding levels to address the issues surrounding the New Agriculture. The second component is to lay out the types of Business Education training that is needed at different levels of the educational ladder for extension workers, and smallholder farmers and input and marketing agencies. The third is to lay out the types of ICT training modules about the New Agriculture that are needed to train extension workers, smallholders, private firms and the Third Sector. The fourth objective is to request bottom up proposals of how public and private universities in Africa plan to respond to the New Agriculture and to increase their emphasis on graduate training within Africa because of the rising cost of overseas graduate education.