This afternoon (18.30 CET), the London Overseas Development Institute is holding a public discussion on the role of technology in improving the productivity and efficiency of African agriculture.
Sir Gordon Conway, Professor of International Development, Centre for Environmental Policy, Imperial College London; Dr Christie Peacock, Chief Executive, Farm Africa; and Jim Sumberg, Research fellow, Institute of Development Studies are heading up the panel.
Part of a series on Agricultural futures in Africa, the event will explore how innovations should be generated: by formal scientific research, farmer-to-farmer communication, or an intermediate approach.
Considering the significant investment Nestlé has made has made over the past 12 months in improving the quality of raw materials we source in Africa – specifically cassava, cocoa and coffee - I will be watching the webcast with interest.
Last month we released the first of our higher-yielding, disease resistant cocoa crops – propagated at our Regional Development Centre in Abidjan, Cote D’Ivoire - to three farming cooperatives, who we are also training in improved farming techniques as part of the Cocoa Plan.
So far the signs have been very promising, but it will take sustained commitment from Nestlé and the farming cooperatives we work with to make this new method of sourcing a long-term, commercially viable success.
As this Guardian article notes, a similar project undertaken by the newspaper group, the African Medical and Research Foundation (Amref) and Farm-Africa in Katine (a rural sub-county of north-east Uganda) experienced a setback recently when cassava farmers did not fully benefit from new agricultural techniques because of poor weather conditions and not enough supervision.
The challenge for our Cocoa Plan therefore lies not only in staying on the cutting edge of plant science to create the best possible quality crops, but also to ensure that the farmers who receive these are equipped with the knowledge and tools to optimise their output and given the incentive to apply them.
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