Training young Africans at the Royal Agricultural University
African Fellowship Trust
Shortly after leaving FARM the Royal Agricultural College (now a university - the RAU) asked me to return as a Visiting Fellow - a most welcome suggestion! My first role given to me by the Vice Principal, Prof Paul Davies, was to identify ways in which the college could work in a new independent Africa, and also to lecture on African development at the college.
Pennina Ngobi, former African Fellow, working on the pig and rabbit project she set up after graduating from the Royal Agricultural University. Primarily a commercial farm, Pennina also runs training courses for small Ugandan farmers in the Kampala area.
Working with the RAU was of key importance. Founded in 1845, RAC was the first agricultural college in Europe and steadily over the years it has built up its standing in the industry.
It has had a particularly strong relationship with colonial African farmers, and now there is a great opportunity to work with the post-colonial governments and the huge numbers of smallholders.
Then one of the college’s senior lecturers, Dr Richard Baines, and I founded the African Fellowship Trust under the wing of the RAU. We raised sufficient funds to offer a one-year Masters course to young Africans. During the year they had to network in the industry to broaden their understanding of commercial world agriculture, and at the end of the year they did two to three months’ work experience in Africa.
I arranged the networking in this country. I introduced students to the City banks, to food giants such as Sainsburys, to the Rothamsted Research and to big commercial farms. Richard arranged the secondments in Africa.
I travelled once a year to Africa to raise funds and to explore opportunities for partnerships between AFT/RAU and African organisations.
Fellows and staff, 2016.
Over the ten years I was based at the Royal Agricultural University, we awarded over 90 Fellowships to African students. We offered places to young students from sub-Saharan countries who we judged to have the ability and commitment to make a difference to their communities. We recruited students of the highest quality and many, I am sure, will go on to hold positions of great influence. To my mind, this was a valuable input and many of our alumni have taken increasingly influential roles in Africa.
Prof Paul Davies, who later became the chair of AFT, provided great support and always gave time to us even when he was hard pressed with RAU affairs. He bravely fought against cancer and died in 2017. He is greatly missed.
AFT alumni work in many places in sub-Saharan Africa. They often go back to their old jobs but are better equipped for the work and progress rapidly. Some have become consultants and often have more to offer than the usual expatriate expert. Many others have started their own farming businesses, such as poultry breeding, and also provide training for the local small farmers.
I felt passionately about AFT and enjoyed working at RAU and in 2013 I was made an Honorary Fellow of the university. But following Paul’s death I sensed that the spirit and enthusiasm behind the formation of AFT was draining away and the RAU did not appear to want to take on a larger role. When a much restricted role for me was proposed, I decided that it was time to go. But I left with a heavy heart and remain convinced that there is much that AFT could do with the right partners.
AFT is still debating how to move forward and I find their hesitancy hard to comprehend. I would set up another group to harness the energies of agribusiness more effectively in Africa through the training of young Africans.
Charity Kinyua, former African Fellow. She did a two-month work placement on a vegetable co-operative after leaving the Royal Agricultural University, and now has a post with International Livestock Research Institute in Nairobi, Kenya.
HRH The Prince of Wales at a recent degree Convocation. The student in a blue gown did her Masters degree as an AFT Fellow.