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Two major entities working to advance agricultural research and development in West and Central Africa have agreed to renew their partnership to better address the most pressing and emerging challenges facing the agri-food system.

This follows a high-level meeting between officials from the West and Central African Council for Agricultural Research and Development (CORAF) and stakeholders from the French Center for International Cooperation in Agronomic Research for Development (CIRAD) held in Dakar in early December 2017.

"CORAF's partnerships must evolve in line with the new challenges facing agricultural research," said Dr Abdou Tenkouano, CORAF's Executive Director.

"CORAF's new strategic plan takes into account emerging themes in the agricultural research system in West and Central Africa, positioning CORAF as a key player in the development of agriculture in all its plurality and diversity.

The current action plan linking the two organizations expires in 2018. At the Dakar meeting, the parties agreed to meet at CIRAD headquarters in Montpellier in 2018 to draw up a new partnership agreement that would enable the different entities to better channel their resources towards research and development areas that can bring added value to the agricultural sector in West and Central Africa.

Bringing together researchers from different countries, particularly France, to carry out collaborative research, teaching and training on specific subjects is at the heart of what CIRAD does.

"We hope that this meeting will provide an opportunity to strengthen synergies around current and future partnership tools," said Dr Michel Eddi, President and CEO of CIRAD.

While recognizing their shared vision and objective, the parties at the Dakar meeting expressed the need for a partnership agreement that would enable each to leverage their comparative advantage for the transformation of the agricultural industry in West and Central Africa.

The countries of West and Central Africa face considerable challenges in terms of the environment, climate change, youth unemployment and growing gender disparities.

The organizations are committed to working together to meet these challenges.

Four themes central to agriculture and rural development were explored at the Dakar meeting. These include:

• Sustainable intensification of soils and production systems;
• Integrated water management ;
• Varietal improvement and agricultural diversification ;
• Enhancing the value of agricultural production, processing and agri-food.

CORAF and CIRAD have worked together since their creation in 1987 and 1984 respectively. The latest cooperation agreement dates back to May 26, 2016, in Thiès, Senegal, where they agreed to focus on varietal improvement in West Africa.

Over the past ten years, CORAF has coordinated research on nine key products through national and regional centers of excellence implemented as part of CORAF's flagship project, the West African Agricultural Productivity Program. The World Bank finances this program under the aegis of ECOWAS.

At the same time, CIRAD relies on the Laboratoires Mixtes Internationaux (LMI) for its research on key crops. While CGIAR research programs take into account the influence of rapid urbanization and other drivers of change to ensure that research results provide solutions at national level that can be scaled up and replicated in other countries and regions.

To succeed, the players agreed that it would be essential to strengthen collaboration between these various tools, while opening up to the wider scientific community.