African Union’ Semi-Arid Food Grains Research and Development (AU-SAFGRAD) participated in and co-sponsored the convening of the 9th International Conference on Dryland Farming and Oasis cropping. The Conference was organized by the Institut des Régions Arides (IRA) Médenine, Tunisia. The theme of the ninth international Conference was “Resource Management and Technological Innovations for Sustainable Agriculture in Arid and Saharan Regions”.
Emerging evidence reveals that the Arid and Semi-Arid lands cover about 69% of Africa and are home to approximately 240 million people whose livelihoods depend mainly on agriculture and pastoralist production. However, with increasing climatic variability and aridity, agricultural productivity is severely limited by water scarcity, soil degradation, salinization of aquifers and irrigated areas, the emergence of invasive diseases and pests, and unsustainable farming systems. These pressures lead to low food production and the concomitant high food price inflation, increase episodes of hunger and malnutrition, high food import bills, increase unemployment, and increase out-migration from the region. There is no gainsaying the fact that a business-as-usual scenario portends a catastrophic outcome for the present and future economies of these regions. There is no doubt, a dire need to innovate differently. The adoption and scaling of climate-smart agricultural technologies have been suggested as the optimal approach to achieve sustainable and resilient Agrifood Systems for a Healthy and Prosperous Africa. The Conference afforded the opportunity and platform for researchers, policy makers and development partners to present, discuss, promote and map innovative (fundamental and applied) research outcomes of best practices in CSA technologies and enhance cooperation and collaborations amongst the stakeholders.
The 3-day Conference was attended by over 200 Delegates from 25 countries. The African Union Commission was represented by AU-SAFGRAD. Dr Ahmed Elmekass (Coordinator) and Dr Mure Agbonlahor (Senior Production & Marketing Officer) participated in the Conference as Speakers, panelist on AU supports to Member States in scaling CSA technologies to achieve sustainable and resilient agrifood systems.