July 23, 2014
Global consortium formed for crop and livestock education
An international partnership across India, Africa and the US has formed the One Agriculture-One Science consortium aimed at revitalising global agricultural education, capacity building and technology transfer.
'One Agriculture-One Science' is a consortium of agricultural education institutes, research organisations and other related agencies focusing on addressing changes and adaptations required for agricultural education to better contribute to development goals, particularly the attainment of food and nutritional security and sustainable agricultural production in developing countries.
The consortium will bring various disciplines in agricultural education such as crop, livestock, natural resource management, etc. together by providing a common platform to address global food security, accessibility and affordability challenges. Through partnerships and knowledge networks, participating institutions shall offer short courses, student scholarship programmes and collaborative research opportunities addressing these challenges.
The launch of the initiative through a consultation workshop was jointly organised by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT), the University of Florida (UF), Michigan State University and Iowa State University, held in Florida, US on 17-18 July 2014. The launch was attended by select experts from land grant state universities in the US, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, the African Green Revolution Alliance, the Regional University Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (a consortium of 42 universities in 19 countries in Africa), the US Department of Agriculture, the US Agency for International Development, and CGIAR centres.
"As a land grant university engaged worldwide, we at UF's Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) know that our relationships with our international partners are reciprocal, that sometimes we experience reverse technology transfer," said Dr. Jack Payne, Senior Vice-President, UF, Gainesville.
"Beyond UF-IFAS Global, we've got ambitious plans for addressing perhaps the grandest challenge of our time - how to feed a projected 9.2 billion people by 2050 and do it in a safe, secure, nutritious and sustainable way and that our collaborations yield more discovery and contribute to the global mission," emphasized Dr. Payne.
