Ethel Makila writes in New Agriculturalist about an African fund that is leading to breakthroughs and opening new frontiers in the continent’s biosciences research (photo: ILRI/David White).

This month (Mar 2013), New Agriculturalist features an article on the Africa Biosciences Challenge Fund. This is a fund that is managed by a state-of-the-art biosciences initiative located in Nairobi, Kenya that is supporting African scientists in addressing key agricultural needs in the continent. This initiative is the Biosciences eastern and central Africa-International Livestock Research Institute Hub, better known as the BecA-ILRI Hub.

‘… [O]n average, only 0.3 per cent of GDP in African countries is dedicated to research and development, seven times less than the investment made in industrialized countries. . . . [S]ub-Saharan Africa (excluding South Africa) contributes only 0.6 per cent of the world’s researchers, a dismal representation from nearly 11 per cent of the global population.

‘Through this program…