Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Development in Agriculture (RUFORUM)

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http://10.29.1.53:4000/handle/10570/5721
The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Development in Agriculture (RUFORUM) is a network of 60 universities working together for relevance and quality in higher education. RUFORUM is committed to enhancing rural livelihoods, gender equity, youth employment and improving our environment.

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Browsing Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Development in Agriculture (RUFORUM) by Subject "Agriculture"
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    Coming of age: RUFORUM strategic business plan 2015 - 2020
    (RUFORUM, 2015-08) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    In July 2014, we celebrated 10 years of our existence as a regional network of African Universities led by Vice Chancellors. At the celebration, we reflected on the road travelled guided by our 10 year Strategic Plan, 2006-2015 and two Business Plans, 2006-2010 and 2011-2016. We concluded that we had met the vision of the 10 founding Vice Chancellors, that there was great benefit for universities to collaborate, and to put in place a platform for catalyzing the close engagement of African Universities in Africa’s development agenda. The regional Secretariat that we had established in 2004 to coordinate activities and provide support and guidance to the universities in terms of institutional reforms, particularly the institutionalization of participatory research processes and improved graduate training to serve smallholder agriculture had exceeded our expectations. This initiative was supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, and subsequently the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and other agencies. After 10 years, we have been able to establish a dynamic regional platform that fosters collaboration, coordination and learning among the member Universities. We grew from a membership of 10 Universities in five countries in East and Southern Africa to today (August 2015) a membership of 46 Universities in 22 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Today we are a voice for Higher Education in Agriculture, and indeed Science, Technology and Innovation, and we are emerging as a regional knowledge hub for Higher Education in Agriculture. A key lesson we learnt was that the strong ownership and engagement of our Universities, led by their Vice Chancellors, was key to our success. We also learnt that in whatsoever we did, we needed to link closely to the grassroots, especially in terms of addressing the needs of smallholder farmers, and this required strategic partnership with a diversity of actors, both within and outside Africa. Further, sustainability of the RUFORUM initiative would eventually hinge on securing funding support from African governments and regional bodies. Looking ahead, we recognize that the landscape is changing with renewed interest in higher education in Africa. Moreover, the African Union sees higher education as critical for achieving its Africa Vision 2063. Further, food and nutrition security will remain a key challenge across the continent, especially with the intensification of climate changes and variability, rural –urban migration linked to a growing youth population, and their impact on human and environment health. We also have an emerging agribusiness sector and agro-industry, requiring new sets of skills and enterprising graduates. Fortunately, we have renewed commitment by African governments on sustaining the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) momentum; and a Science Agenda for Agriculture in Africa (S3A) and the African Union Science, Technology and Innovation Strategy for Africa (STISA 2024) are in place. RUFORUM must position itself to respond to these opportunities, making clear the network’s value to its different market segments. Our consultations with key stakeholders in and outside Africa confirm that our Strategic objectives are still valid, but operation modalities need to be refreshed to respond to the emerging landscape. This is the basis of our new five year Strategic Business Plan (2015-2020). The Plan envisions a RUFORUM that is financially stable in 2020, with significant financial input from its members, African governments and reimbursement of services and operations. The Plan is adaptable, with a scheduled mid-term review in 2017-18.
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    Enhancing agricultural knowledge sharing among smallholder farmers in Uganda: An evaluation of mobile and web technologies
    (Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, 2016-10) Mwesigwa, E. ; Tulinayo, F.P. ; Mirembe, D.P.
    Agricultural information is critical in improving smallholder agricultural production and linking increased production to markets. Publically funded research and indigenous knowledge are the main sources of agricultural knowledge for smallholder farmers. It is important to ensure that knowledge is disseminated to users to support the innovation process. Information and communication technology (ICT) play a critical role in expediting knowledge sharing and management in a cost effective manner. The emergence of ICTs such as mobile phones has opened unprecedented possibilities to advance smallholder farming. In this paper, we present a review on the use of mobile phones to enhance agricultural knowledge sharing among smallholder farmers.
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    The fifth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-09) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This is a programme for the pre-events for the fifth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016.
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    The Fifth African Higher Education Week and RUFORUM Biennial Conference 2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-10) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, RUFORUM
    This is a detailed program book for the RUFORUM conference and biennial conference.
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    Results-focused capacity development strategy
    (RUFORUM, 2016-03) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    Capacity is a critical aspect of development. Capacity development (CapDev) has been at the core of RUFORUM’s mandate and one of the most important result areas for the network. A key approach of the network is to facilitate engagement of universities to current and emerging challenges facing rural communities and in building capacity of young people to be part of the accelerated African agricultural growth and transformation (3AGT) agenda through developing and implementing relevant curricula driven by learning needs. From a capacity development perspective, RUFORUM aspires to be an important actor for CapDev in its areas of work in higher agricultural education and learning (HAEL) and agriculture and rural development (A&RD), playing a catalytic and facilitation role to deliver high-quality CapDev support grounded in national, regional and global plans and strategies, to partners and customer/client institutions.
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    The role of Information and Communication Technology in enhancing university-smallholder farming community engagement
    (Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, 2016-10) Tulinayo, F.P. ; Mirembe, D.P. ; Obaa, B.
    In the modern information economy, communication and information sharing is key in improving one’s way of working, thinking and living. Studies indicate that despite the flourishing Information Communication Technology (ICT) sector and a vibrant higher education sector, rural smallholder farmers are still struggling to access vital knowledge and information to improve their farming practices, access to market and policy advocacy. Higher institutions of learning through their outreach programmes have an important role to play in enhancing smallholder farmer’s ability to timely access knowledge and information. However, reorientation will be required for these institutions to deliver. This calls for innovations requiring approaches, frameworks, and models that exploit the potential of ICT’s in empowering higher institutions of learning capacity and ability to fill the knowledge and information gap among smallholder farmers. This paper discusses the role of innovative ICT’s in enhancing university smallholder farming community engagement.
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    RUFORUM 12th Annual General Meeting
    (RUFORUM, 2016-10-18) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This is an outline of the RUFORUM 12th annual general meeting program, 18th October, 2016, African Pride Crystal Towers Hotel and Spa
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    RUFORUM achievements on target milestones for the financial year 2015/2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08-18) The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, RUFORUM
    This document highlights the RUFORUM achievements on target milestones for the financial year 2015/2016. Archievements are outlined for every target set in a given period.
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    RUFORUM annual report 2013 - 2014: training the next generation of scientists for Africa
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08-18) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    The RUFORUM annual report for the period 2013 to 2014 includes a message from the Executive Secretary; introduction to RUFORUM; high quality regional collaboration degree programme; innovative research through competitive grant mechanisms; cross cutting support through monitoring and evaluation and information and communication technology; strengthening the secretariat; the board and its committees; and financial report.
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    RUFORUM annual report 2014 - 2015: Building capacity in Africa
    (RUFORUM, 2016) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    The RUFORUM annual report for the period 2014 to 2015 includes a message from the Executive Secretary; and an introduction to RUFORUM. It discusses other topics on: demand driven research, community action and institutional strengthening grants; regional training programs; information and communication technology; planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning (PMEL), strengthening RUFORUM governance; and resource mobilization and financial overview.
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    RUFORUM is transforming agriculture in Eastern, Central, Western and Southern Africa
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This is a RUFORUM flyer on the theme: RUFORUM is transforming agriculture in eastern, central, western and southern Africa, training the next generation of scientists for Africa
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    RUFORUM summary of progress on activities for the financial year 2015/ 2016
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08-18) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture
    This report presents a summary of progress, key achievements for the year 2015/2016 and targets for the coming period for the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), a network of 60 African Universities with a Secretariat at Makerere University in Uganda. The work is anchored on the recently approved RUFORUM Strategic Business Plan (2015-2020) which guides overall RUFORUM activities along its mission.
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    RUFORUM targets for the financial year 2016/17
    (RUFORUM, 2016-08-18) Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, RUFORUM
    This is an outline of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM) targets for the financial year 2016/17.
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    Socio-economic drivers of ecosystem service provision
    (Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture, 2016-10) Ssengabi, M. ; Bonabana-Wabbi, J. ; Mugonola, B.
    Land degradation is one of the major problems affecting not only Uganda but the whole of Sub Saharan Africa (SSA). This challenge is partly due to high population densities and overexploitation of natural resources. Farmers in SSA have now resorted to clearing of the forests in a bid to look for land for settlement, energy requirements and growing of crops to feed the ever increasing population. Options that are left to the farmers are either to use intensive land use systems or depend on the ecosystem services that are provided by the diversified land use systems. As one moves away from diversified to simplified land use systems, ecosystem services may reduce. Since farmers always go for that option that maximize their benefit, decisions can be based on the attributes of the land use systems but more so, on the socio-economic factors that surround them. Such factors for example include land tenure, farmer demographic characteristics, and farmer’s income, among others. Literature suggests that there are mixed factors that influence land use intensities in different parts of the world. This study will identify the socio-economic factors that influence land use decisions in ecosystem services provision in Mt Elgon region of Uganda with a view to expanding the knowledge base as well as guiding decision makers in planning activities.
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