Network Support Function
General Assembly
Network Support Project
General Assembly
Third FARA General Assembly
Innovations to transform agriculture to improve livelihoods and development in Africa.
6-12 June 2005
Entebbe, Uganda
To that end, the General Assembly in June 2005 brought together over 500 representatives of
the Sub-Regional Organisations (SROs), the National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS), CGIAR and non-CGIAR, the international agricultural research institutions, farmers’ organisations, governments, Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs), the international donor community and the private sector with the following objectives:
1. To raise awareness amongst African leaders of the capacity of agricultural research to transform agriculture and improve livelihoods.
2. To facilitate regional coordination of agricultural research in Africa.
His Excellency President Yoweri Museveni reminded the Assembly that agricultural development requires attention to seven priorities. Research on:
1. Productivity traits.
2. Production practices.
3. Value adding and job creating processing.
4. Transportation and other infrastructural constraints.
5. Storage including improving produce handling.
6. Markets.
7. Environmental conservation.
The keynote address on ‘Innovation for agricultural transformation and improved livelihoods in Africa’ outlined many of the opportunities and issues that have to be addressed. Discussions on these issues were encouraged firstly, by the determination on the part of African leaders to drive agricultural development in their nations and the continent as set out in AU/
NEPAD’s (African Union/ New Partnership for Africa’s Development) Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP), and secondly, by the renewed interest of Africa’s development partners as expressed in the communiqué issued at the time of
the Assembly by President George Bush of the United States and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the United Kingdom. This gave the Assembly’s discussion real prospects for implementation.
Outcomes and Documentation