The University has joined top universities around the world to become a member of the Global Farm Platform (GFP), an international forum that brings 23 world-leading universities and agricultural research institutions, 15 farm platforms and 39 people together from all the continents. Announcing the feat, the Director, Directorate of Research, Innovations and Partnerships (DRIP) of the University, Prof. Abdul-rasaq Adebowale stated that FUNAAB has been integrated into the platform alongside other institutions from Africa. The Director said membership of GFP would enable the University and members of staff to forge research networks in any area of agro-science with all other institutes on the platform.

The objectives of the platform are the establishment of a global academic network to promote farm research platforms for the optimisation of ruminant livestock production by contributing to food security, sustainability and poverty alleviation. Others include the exchange of knowledge, methodologies and data on global farm platforms for ruminant livestock among academics through workshops, regional training sessions, research project development, provision of international experience, outlook and knowledge to academic staff involved in the development and operation of farm research platforms for ruminant livestock production through staff placements and exchanges.

The platform was established in 2012 through common ideals and goals pioneered by diverse group of scientists that created a vision of sustainable and responsible production of food from healthy animals. Key partners already have a strong history of working together and are linked to a number of relevant institutions that would make further valuable contributions to the platform. The partners include the University of Wisconsin-Madison, United States of America; University of Leeds, United Kingdom; University of Western-Australia, Australia; University College, Dublin, Ireland; University of Alberta, Canada; University of New Zealand, Zhejiang University, New Zealand, and the International Livestock Research Institute. Others are the Chinese Academy of Science, China; Kerala Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, India; University of Cape Coast, Ghana; The Small Scale Livestock and Livelihoods Programme, Malawi; French Institute for Agricultural Research, France; China; and Embrapa Southeast Livestock, Brazil, among others.

Last Updated on August 5, 2020 by FUNAAB