The document outlines recommendations from the 6th Africa Agriculture Science week held in Accra, Ghana in July 2013. It discusses 4 subthemes: 1) education and human resource development, 2) innovations to improve productivity and resilience, 3) moving beyond competition to collaboration, and 4) innovative financing and investment in agriculture. Some key recommendations include investing in institutional capacity development, creating a critical mass of agricultural professionals, mainstreaming integrated agricultural research for development, supporting technological innovations along the agricultural value chain, and promoting proven initiatives that leverage investment in agriculture.

1. Summary Recommendations from
Plenary
6th Africa Agriculture Science week
Accra, 15-20 July 2013

2. Subtheme 1:
Education and Human Resource Development to enable
Africa feed Africa
1) Invest in wider systems and institutional capacity
development for agricultural innovation and
document evidence of impact
2) Create critical mass of context-relevant agricultural
professionals and ‘agri-preneurs’ through an
appropriate mix of tertiary and middle level
education and technical and vocational training

3. Subtheme 1:
Education and Human Resource Development to enable
Africa feed Africa
3) Inter-connect platforms and networks to enhance
joint planning, implementation, resource mobilization
and leveraging strengths
4) Support uptake of new initiatives, new technologies
and policy for sustainable capacity development that
mainstream gender and youth

4. Subtheme 2:
Innovations to improve productivity and resilience
5) Mainstream the IAR4D into ARD structure through
increasing awareness , policy and capacity development.
6) Technological innovation needs to give attention to
issues of postharvest, agricultural-nutrition nexus and
sustainable water and nutrient use.
7) Wheat is an important commodity in Africa, as such
there is a need to support the establishment of an
Africa led partnership mechanism for coordinating and
managing wheat initiative in Africa.

5. Subtheme 2
Innovations to improve productivity and resilience
8) The Science Agenda discussions need to broaden the
consultations to involve the National Agricultural Research
Institutes (NARIS) and the various science based networks; it
also needs to develop a funding mechanism.
9) The foresight tool is very vital for sustainability and for
the future of ARD in Africa. There is however need for
capacity building

6. Subtheme 2
Innovations to improve productivity and resilience
10) Develop capacity and increase investments for
sustainable livestock, crop, land use intensification,
aquatic agricultural systems and EverGreen Agriculture
for increased agricultural productivity and resilience
11) Formulate guidelines and approaches for the
implementation of climate smart agriculture at
national and regional level

7. Subtheme 3
Moving beyond competition to collaboration
13) Leverage on the improvements in ICT awareness
and infrastructure in Africa to build strong partnership
among all players for improved delivery of services and
enable innovation in AR4D.
14) Bridge the gap between policy pronouncements
and implementation by national governments through
strong advocacy by CAADP implementation agencies to
guarantee effective AR4D programme.

8. Subtheme 4
Innovative Financing and Investment in Agriculture
15) Proven initiatives (i.e Innovative Fund for
Agricultural Transformation (IFAT)) that leverage
investments in agriculture should be promoted and
out-scaled to other countries.
16) Public and private sector investments should focus
on youth oriented initiatives that would make
agriculture more attractive to the youth.

9. Subtheme 4
Innovative Financing and Investment in Agriculture
16) FARA and its partners should develop evidence-
based tools to support investment decisions in
agriculture e.g. studies on total factor productivity
(TFP) to determine the potential contribution of each
factor of production.
17) Innovative financing options provided by ICTs such
as Mobile Money Transfer and Google Farmer should
be promoted.