Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) Country Director, David Wozemba. Photo/Courtesy
Tell us briefly about the Africa Food Prize and AGRA’s involvement in the Prize?
The Africa Food Prize began as the Yara Prize in 2005, established by Yara International ASA in Norway to honour achievements in African agriculture. In 2015, Yara and AGRA jointly transferred the prize to Africa, renaming it the Africa Food Prize to give it an African identity and ownership.
The prize aims to inspire scientists and researchers by highlighting achievements and innovations that can be replicated across the continent to eliminate hunger and poverty and provide new employment and income sources.
How does the Africa Food Prize support Uganda's agenda for sustainable agriculture and food security?
The Africa Food Prize aligns with Uganda's national efforts to promote sustainable agriculture and food security. First, the Prize recognises and rewards innovations that boost agricultural productivity, which aligns closely with Uganda's push to modernise its agricultural sector through new technologies and techniques.
Secondly, the Prize seeks to highlight successful models that can improve the livelihoods of smallholder farmers by providing both recognition and financial incentives that encourage the adoption of sustainable practices to increase productivity and income.
Uganda is working to build resilience against climate change in its agricultural sector, and the Africa Food Prize supports this by rewarding initiatives in climate-smart agriculture, such as the development of drought-resistant crop varieties and sustainable water management practices.
In essence, the Africa Food Prize serves as a catalyst and amplifier for Uganda's national efforts by recognising and rewarding successful initiatives and innovations that can be further scaled and replicated to advance sustainable agriculture and food security across the country.
Have any Ugandan innovators or organisations been recognised by the prize, or are there potential candidates?
Dr Emma Naluyima won the prize in 2019 for her innovative approach to smallholder farming based on highly profitable integration of crops and livestock. Also Dr Catherine Nakalembe won the prize in 2020 for her work using satellite technology to improve agricultural decision-making.
It is worth noting that the Africa Food Prize can be awarded to any qualified candidate, irrespective of nationality, profession, or location, whose work has had a clear impact on the African situation.
How can Ugandans get involved, and what are the judging criteria?
Ugandans, especially scientists and researchers can participate by being nominated or nominating others who have made significant contributions to African agriculture.
To evaluate nominations, the Prize Committee considers contribution to reducing poverty and hunger and/or improving nutrition in measurable terms; contribution to providing a vital source of income and/or employment in measurable terms; potential for scalability or replication; increased awareness and cooperation among African audiences and organisations; and leadership potential of the individual or organisation, specifically the ability of the people to persevere despite significant challenges or risks.
What role does your organisation play in supporting local research and innovation that could transform Uganda's agriculture?
AGRA supports initiatives to increase Uganda’s food trade competitiveness of major value chains (maize, beans, and rice) in line with the government priorities. For instance, we facilitate market linkages and domestic and regional trade and to address priority binding constraints of farmers and agri-food firms. We support the government to strengthen policy implementation and coordination for agro-industrialisation in Uganda and strengthening systems and regulatory reforms to enhance seed quality assurance.
AGRA provides technical assistance and access to finance support to medium-large SMEs to assist with scaling efforts and to help them improve their business management and link to other market actors including financial institutions and input/output markets. We support platforms that enable young women to showcase their work and influence duty bearers for opportunities in agriculture.
How does the Africa Food Prize promote sustainable agriculture, especially for small-scale farmers in Uganda?
The Africa Food Prize awards $100,000 (Shs366,710,490) prize to individuals or institutions that demonstrate exceptional achievements in agriculture. Besides the financial support, the award recognises and also highlights successful models that can be replicated in Uganda to spur agricultural transformation.
For instance, Dr Naluyima has transformed her 1-acre farm into a model of profitable and environmentally friendly agriculture. She has integrated crop and livestock production, using recycled farm resources to create natural fertilisers and biogas.
Dr Naluyima hosts up to 10,000 visiting farmers annually to demonstrate sustainable farming techniques. Such demonstrations are expected to have a multiplier effect among small holder farmers. Ms Nakalembe, the 2020 winner, has improved the lives of smallholder farmers by using satellite technology to harness data to guide agricultural decision-making and promoted the formulation of policies and programmes that are directly impacting farmers against the impacts of food failure.
How can Ugandans benefit from the innovations developed by the winners of the Africa Food Prize?
Ugandans, particularly smallholder farmers, can adopt successful agricultural practices demonstrated by winners. Some scientists have been recognised for developing and scaling improved crop varieties suited for drylands conditions. Smallholder farmers in Uganda can adopt such crops to overcome drought conditions and boost food security.
How do you envision Uganda's agricultural sector changing in the next five-10 years, and what will AGRA's role be?
Over the next five to ten years, we expect to see improvements in market access, both domestically and internationally. We expect to see productivity gains across the sector, driven by improved access to high-quality inputs, particularly seeds and fertilisers, as well as the widespread adoption of modern farming techniques.
Climate change
Climate resilience will be at the forefront of agricultural transformation in Uganda. We are already seeing farmers embrace climate-smart agricultural practices, and this trend will accelerate. It will include adoption of drought-resistant crop varieties and improved irrigation systems, which are essential given the increasing unpredictability of weather patterns due to climate change. the years, we have grown more than 400,000 fruit trees across 36 districts in Uganda. We have worked with over a million children so far.’’
Joseph Masembe
