Agricultural Research Council (ARC) and the Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network (FANRPAN) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to explore and prioritize opportunities for synergy between the two institutions for greater impact in the food, agriculture, and natural resources sectors on the African continent. The signing ceremony took place on 13 March 2023 at the University of Pretoria’s Future Africa campus.

With an Africa-wide mandate, FANRPAN is an autonomous stakeholder-driven policy research, analysis, and advocacy network with operational nodes in 18 countries. FANRPAN’s mandate is to coordinate policy research and analysis, leading to the generation of evidence and policy options aimed at promoting the transformation of the food, agriculture, and natural resources sectors on the continent. Established in 1997, the formation of the policy network was in response to a call made in 1994 by Ministers of Agriculture from the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region for a network that could provide independent evidence to inform policy-making processes, implementation, domestication and/or harmonization, monitoring and evaluation, and mutual accountability at both national and regional levels.

As South Africa`s premier science institution, the ARC has experience and capacity in diagnostic, laboratory, analytical, and agricultural engineering services, post-harvest technology development, agrochemical evaluation, consultation, advisory, and food processing technology services, and various surveys and training interventions.

FANRPAN and ARC recognize that the challenges for sustainable agricultural development in Africa require concerted and robust efforts to exploit the opportunities for a scientific and technological revolution in agricultural sciences, which must be implemented to improve the resilience of food systems on the continent in the face of climate change, food and nutrition insecurity, and weak policy implementation and coordination.