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Dr Honoré Tabuna: "Agricultural research must be inspired by marketing".

Dr Honoré Tabuna, Commissioner, Head of the Environment, Natural Resources, Agriculture and Rural Development Department at the Economic Community of Central African States(ECCAS) Commission, stresses the importance of opening up agricultural research in Africa to marketing. He highlights the indispensable role of researchers in agricultural innovation, and insists on the need to economically valorize research results. It also addresses the challenges of investing in agriculture, and proposes solutions to mitigate the migration of young African talent. 

What is your assessment of the conclusions of the 14th ordinary session of the CORAF General Assembly? General Assembly which took place in Cotonou from April 15 to 17, 2024?

Dr Honoré Tabuna: I have a feeling of satisfaction because without research, you can't develop. As I said earlier, it's with innovation. Innovation comes with research. Otherwise, you're just treading water. So, as far as agriculture is concerned, we've seen that they've made progress. What remains is the second step: how to sell what they can do? How to add value, but economic value, to what they do, so that those doing the research can earn money from it. That's why I said that CORAF is a business, it's an organization, even if it's not for profit. So its whole approach must be inspired by the marketing approach. Today, they work a lot with their partners, and that's one of their clients. But their other customers are the private sector, parliamentarians, mayors' associations and market managers. How can we reach out to them? So here too, as I said, we need to innovate. As we're specialists in technological innovation, we now need to move on to organizational, managerial and marketing innovation, to reach out to these people, rework their products and ask the question. Now they know how to do it. Now, how can we satisfy them? Because we come into this world seeking first to satisfy others. That's why in marketing, we first ask you to sell before producing.

Agriculture is the future of Africa, and Africa is the future of agriculture", it was hammered home during the discussions. So how can agricultural research contribute to food security on the continent?

It's all about translating what you've just said. Politically, in the jargon of development, it's beautiful. But what does it actually mean? So we need to do some marketing. Not just technological research, as I said. It's research that has to provide the answer to the question you've just asked. How can we increase production? How can we meet market expectations? Research is the key. But I'm saying that we can't just do research. Can we make money with research? We need to get into the economics of research. We're talking about the economy of culture, the economy of climate. So we need to start doing the economics of research. Going out into the field, identifying needs, testing new products, that's research.

Governments in the West and Central African sub-region are often criticized for not respecting their decision to invest at least 10% of the national budget in agriculture. Following CORAF's GA-14, what should be done?

I come back to the same thing. That's because researchers haven't sold this idea. What does a politician need? He wants to create jobs. He has priorities. If I put money into research, there are trade-offs. So researchers have to do everything they can to make research a priority. The question now is, what do we need? I used to be a researcher, but I did something else outside research: marketing. And I realized that this is the problem with research. If you want to do research, don't worry, the market will guide you. When telephones first came out, for example, there were flip phones. We've changed. But who says so? It's the market. Every day, brands come down to the market, asking questions. So that's what's missing. We need to do this work.

How can governments use agricultural policies to mitigate the migratory situation of young skills in Africa?

We need to create jobs, we need to create jobs. If you go to the markets, you develop the markets, you have to develop agriculture. People won't travel anymore. Among the people who do travel, and I'll take Italy as an example, you'll see young Burkinabés working in agriculture there. Why do they go there? Because there are jobs there. But what they're doing there, if people could say, well, we'll do it here, who's going to go to Europe? I lived in Europe for 17 years. It's very difficult. Politicians often have to be told that they have interests, just as you have interests. What's in it for him? But most researchers don't know how to answer these questions. I told them they need to open up to marketing researchers. There needs to be a basic research department, with people who also do law. Before I got into politics, I was a researcher, but before I was a researcher, I worked for companies. After all, companies are all about concrete things: what do we do? Where do we go? How much do we earn? How much do we invest? The world you see here is all about business.