New partnership and strategic alliances: A boost to promotion of Sustainable Agriculture in Africa.
As engraved in its Strategic Plan which identifies Capacity Building and Partnership as one of the six thematic areas and in its quest to brings together stakeholders and players who are dedicated to improving agricultural productivity through sustainable utilization of natural resources of land and water, appropriate mechanization and agro-ecosystem management in Africa’s farming systems, African Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) gladly wishes to extol the new strides to strategically strengthen its partnership with international organizations/institutions in the spirit of forging synergies and complementarities to achieve desired outcomes. Notably, ACT will in the month of February 2019, enter into new partnership arrangement and framework as follows:
(A). Signing Memorandum of Understanding with FAO, Rome
On Thursday, 7th February, 2019 1100 - 1200Hrs, at FAO Headquarters, Rome, Italy, Gabon Espace Room, Africa Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) will enter into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to synergize on the scaling up of Sustainable Agricultural Mechanisation and Conservation Agriculture in Africa which has the potential to transform the lives and livelihoods of millions of smallholder farmers. This partnership framework will facilitate alliances framed on the need to unblock pervasive hindrances to massive adoption of Sustainable Agriculture, anchored on commercial, environmental and socio-economic sustainability.
The signing of the MOU forms a new partnership in realization of the FAO and African Union Commission (AUC) Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization Framework (SAMA-F) for Africa.
In addition, this agreement is in tandem with the Johannesburg 2018 Second Africa Congress on Conservation (2ACCA) 12th (g) way forward action which stated that “Recognising that Sustainable Agricultural Mechanization (SAM) as an important enabler in accelerating widespread practicing of CA and attainment of the Malabo Declarations’ Vision 25 x 25 and the Agenda 2063, urge ACT to advance appropriate African focused mechanisms and thrives that will largely deliver suitable SAM and support the propagation of self-sustaining development of the agricultural mechanization in Africa.” Furthermore, the MoU forms a compliance response to the 2014 Lusaka Declaration of the first Africa congress on Conservation Agriculture, which in its 10th resolve urged “ACT, in collaboration with FAO & Regional Economic Communities are called upon to support knowledge management by stakeholders.”
(B). Signing Memorandum of Understanding with the Italian Agricultural Research Institute (CREA),
On Thursday 7th February 2019 at 18:00 hours, in CREA head office, Via Po 14 – Roma, Italy, Africa Conservation Tillage Network (ACT) will sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l’analisi dell’economia agraria (CREA,) Italian Agricultural Research Institute, on agricultural research and cooperation. This partnership agreement is intended to tap the two parties’ long-term experiences and enhance technical backstopping on Sustainable Agriculture and Conservation Agriculture around ACT’s Sustainable Agriculture – Centres of Excellence (SA-CoEs).
This agreement is established at the backdrop of ACT’s strong commitment in the growth of partnerships that support scaling up adaptation and adoption of Conservation Agriculture, sustainable agricultural mechanization and ecosystem management. Its partnership strategy provides the basis of collaborating with various agricultural based organizations or institutions in different regions explicitly to support the promoting of Sustainable Agriculture (SA) in Africa. Effective networking between ACT and its partners continues to allow lesson learning that leads to impact, is beneficial and sustainable.