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The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a consortium of 128 Universities in 38 African Countries, is pleased to notify the prospective applicants of the upcoming call for 2021 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition (RUYAEC). The overall purpose of the RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition (RUYAEC) is to catalyse entrepreneurship through promotion of business innovation and provision of seed funding to … Read More Pre-Call Announcement for 2021 RUFORUM Young African Entrepreneurs Competition

Background The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), established by ten Vice Chancellors in 2004, is a consortium of 128 African universities operating within 38 countries spanning the African continent. RUFORUM is coordinated by a Secretariat hosted by Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. RUFORUM supports universities to address the important and largely unfulfilled role that universities play in contributing to the well‐being of … Read More Precall Announcement for RUFORUM Young Scientists Award (YSA)

 Background My Journey into the PhD program began when we were invited by our partners from the School of Agricultural Sciences, Makerere University to partner in the development of a proposal. This proposal was for the competitive grants that had been advertised under the RUFORUM Community Action Research Program (CARP). At that time, I was working with an NGO (Women of Uganda Network), where … Read More The fruit of my PhD journey: Dr. Janet C. Achora

Daily Maverick Our universities need to change for an as yet unimagined future (South Africa) South Africa needs to build national capacity for an economy that needs skills that are radical and complex. In order to facilitate this, we need to ‘decolumnise’ campuses from the grand colosseums to a vibrant, insightful, smart network of decentralised partners.  Here is something that should scare and excite … Read More [Issue 62] Media Monitoring: Extract of Press News on Higher Education in Africa

As a son of a farmer, I am always compounded and reminded of Bill Gates quotation “Innovations that are guided by smallholder farmers, adapted to local circumstances, and sustainable for the economy and environment will be necessary to ensure food security in the future”. Therefore, I strive to emulate on the farming practices of my fore fathers and at the same time improve on … Read More It is beyond high yield when selecting cassava varieties for planting. An experience from Bukedea and Kumi districts in Uganda

Having grown and brought up in western part of Kenya, where cassava is one of the major foods and a week cannot go without ‘Ugali’ made from cassava and sorghum this was my first encounter with the Kenyan coast. I had higher expectations and according to the stories I have been since my childhood about the people in the Kenyan coastal region. This ranging … Read More Farmer Misconceptions of Cassava Diseases, Income and Food Security Opportunities from Cassava Production in Coastal Kenya

IAEA News Benin enhances production and export of soybean using Bio-fertilizers and isotopic technology (Benin) Poor soil fertility meant low yields and insufficient income for soybean farmers in the West African nation of Benin. Thanks to the use of bio-fertilizers, improved using isotopic techniques, they have increased their production significantly, with the support of the IAEA in partnership with the Food and Agriculture Organization … Read More [Issue 61] Media Monitoring: Extract of Press News on Higher Education in Africa

University World News Over 100 PhDs face review in single university (Kenya) Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT) has defended as “meritoriously earned” its doctoral degrees awarded over the past year – despite a recent report by the regulator highlighting inadequate supervision and other irregularities which has thrown the validity of up to 118 PhDs into doubt. The Quality Audit Panel of … Read More [Issue 52-60] Media Monitoring: Extract of Press News on Higher Education in Africa

RUFORUM Secretariat wish all Muslim communities happy Eid Elfetter

Moi University African Cluster Centre (Moi-ACC) is one of the four African Clusters affiliated with the University of Bayreuth Africa Multiple Cluster of Excellence in African Studies Initiative. We are pleased to announce a Student Internship program at the ACC. Download the full advert

Mention to anyone from Kenya that you are at the Coast and quickly in their mind they will think you have gone to relax your mind, enjoy nature and explore the Coast line; basically the Coast in Kenya is synonymous with tourism!. Actually, having pleasure of your life can happen anywhere but this is not what took me to the Kenyan coast this time … Read More Let’s talk agribusiness: Opportunities in the cassava value chain at the Kenya Coast region

I was born in Central part of Kenya and schooled in the same regions throughout to University. The first time I experienced farming by any other community was when I was employed by Ministry of agriculture livestock and Fisheries back in May 1997 when I was posted to Nyanza Province. Experience in working with different communities have taught me over the years to appreciate … Read More Cassava, a crop with unexploited opportunities in Coastal part of Kenya

The Centre for Sustainable Agriculture, Rural Development and Extension submitted a proposal, “Building Competitiveness for communal farmers through developing the wool value chain in the Free State Province of South Africa”, as a bid for a project to The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture. The proposal was selected and the grant was awarded to the Centre.  Subsequently Dr Jan W Swanepoel, … Read More University of Free State catalysing quality and increasing profitability of the wool value chain among small-scale farmers in the Free State

The health crisis caused by COVID19 has had negative impacts on the global economy. Nevertheless, it has allowed some small enterprises to boost their income. This is the case of Agro Food Business (AFoB), a small social enterprise in northern Benin. Founded and headed by an academician entrepreneur, Dr. Ir. Soulé Akinhola ADECHIAN, AFoB is involved in the production, processing and marketing of perishable … Read More Harvesting business growth from COVID-19 Pandemic: a young entrepreneurs’ experience

Back in 2017, as a requirement of a degree of Masters of Science in Food Safety and Quality, I was privileged to join my class in a one week community outreach and assessment program in Kwale County. The one week assessment interrogated community food handling and safety knowledge to tackle the increasing cases of malnutrition and periodical cholera cases experienced in the county during … Read More Sowing seeds of transformation among cassava producers: Experiences with farm households in Kilifi and Taita-Taveta counties at the Kenyan coast

Gad Simone Mahoussi Assocle was born in Cotonou, Republic of Benin and she hold a bachelor’s degree in Food Technology from National University of Agriculture of Porto-Novo (Benin). She is currently enrolled for a Masters of Science in Food Security and Community Nutrition at Gulu University in Uganda, funded by RUFORUM as part of the TAGDev program (Transforming African agricultural universities to significantly contribute … Read More My motivation to start a business was to respond to society’s needs

Aliet Mmbone Ugada is Kenyan student studying MSc Food Security and Community Nutrition at Gulu University with support from Mastercard Foundation through RUFORUM. She shares her journey and transformation thus far, from the two weeks orientation in Egerton University in Kenya, the change and adjustments in Uganda and the cultural shock that came with it and the research that got her in cooperated into … Read More My research got me into a USAID funded Project

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Melas Cayrol Adoko is Beninese by nationality and he completed a Master’s of Science in Food security and Community Nutrition from Gulu University (Uganda). As a key requirement for obtaining the Master’s degree, he, like other students was expected to successfully carry out a research for effective community transformation in relation to his course. For Melas, his research focused on “Improving the Vitamin A … Read More Fighting malnutrition among children aged 2-5,one pancake at a time