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Makerere Shines in Accra as 6th AASW Kicks Off

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The 6th Africa Agriculture Science Week (AASW) has opened in the Ghanaian capital, Accra.

The week-long gathering is organized by the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA) in collaboration with the Government of Ghana through the Ministry of Environment, Science, Technology and Innovation (MESTI) and the Ministry of Food and Agriculture (MoFA).

The Agriculture Science Week is the continental gathering of all stakeholders in African agriculture aimed at creating an open space for networking and exchanging information and knowledge on agricultural innovations and on topical issues with a bearing on agricultural research and development.

This meeting is convened every three years and this year’s gathering is running under the theme; “Africa feeding Africa through Science and Innovations."

Opening the conference Monday morning at the Accra International Conference Center, the Chairman of the FARA Board Dr. Tiemoko Yo observed that food and nutrition insecurity remain cardinal problems especially in Africa.  Dr. Tiemoko challenged Africans to stump out hunger from the continent saying that Africa has a great potential to feed itself given that 60% of its arable land remains un-utilized and the remaining 40% bears crops with low yields.  

The Ghanaian Minister of Food & Agriculture, Clement Kofi Humado challenged African universities to come up with home- grown food security innovations for their countries.

The outgoing FARA Executive Director, Prof Monty Jones said, “there is no better country to host this kind of meeting than Ghana, one of the few African countries that have succeeded in turning around its economy, cutting down hunger thereby remaining on track to achieving the 1st Millennium Development Goal of halving hunger and poverty by 2015”.

Makerere University, one of the four African universities exhibiting at the event is represented by the College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences (CAES) and the College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB). The two colleges are showcasing their research innovations in agriculture and animal sectors.

Participants visiting the Makerere University stall are impressed by the innovations, technologies and products that are being showcased at the exhibition. They have however expressed concern as to why the products are not available for sale.

CAES is showcasing her latest innovations and technologies including the Makerere  Bio-fertilizer which fixes nitrogen in the soil, the Soil Testing Kit used for semi quantitative evaluation of five nutrient investigative parameters namely soil Ph, potassium, nitrogen, organic matter and Phosphurus.

Others are the new sweet sorghum variety (MUK60), which is drought tolerant, for the production of food and bio fuels, four varieties of Mak Soya, which are resistant to leaf rust disease, early maturing and high yielding.

The College is also exhibiting the Milk Booster, the Calf Accelerator and the Briquettes made from industrial and agricultural wastes. The Indigenous Micro Organisms (IMO) used in organic farming is also on display.
A variety of items from the Food Technology and Business and Incubation Centre (FTBIC) have also attracted conference participants to the Makerere University booth. These include the preserved grass hoppers (Nsenene), Bean sauce, Mc peas, Amaranth flour, Smile bean sauce, Canned Kantunkuma, Campus pineapple, Tea Mujaja, Mudalasini, Ginger, Gooseberry Jam, Omulondo liquer, Ajon (improved Malwa), Dawn juice, Goose berry juice, Nutreal cookies, and Pinnacle Banana Juice among others.

The College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (CoVAB) is showcasing her skills development and employment programs offered through the AFRISA partnership institute. The programs involve value addition to animal products and are essential for job creation especially among the youth. Shoes and belts made by Students of Leather Industry and Business; one of the 11 skills development program are also being showcased.

A number of Makerere University dons including Prof. Samuel Kyamanywa, CAES, CoVAB’s Principal Prof. John David Kabasa, Veteran Professor Elly Sabiiti, Prof. Moses Tenywa Makoma and Dr. Donald Kugonza among others are participating in different forums. Also present is a team from RUFORUM led by the Executive Director, Prof. Adipala Ekwamu. They have so far participated in discussions on reforming curricular in higher agricultural education in Africa, climate smart villages in Africa: opportunities for farmers and communities, capacity strengthening for agricultural innovations among others.

Another team led by Makerere University Branding and Marketing Manager Agaba Issa Mugabo includes CAES and CoVAB’s Communication officers strategically positioned in the Makerere stall showcasing the latest technologies and innovations.

Other universities are University of Nairobi, Jomo Kenyatta University (Kenya) and Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (Malawi).

The science week has been internationally recognized as the apex gathering of all stakeholders in African agricultural research and development. It has attracted key decision makers in governments within and outside Africa such as Ministers, Parliamentarians, key players in the private sector, leaders of civil society and farmers’ organizations, women groups and leaders in agricultural research and development.

This milestone event is taking place from 15th-20th July 2013 and will be officially opened by the President of the Republic of Ghana, H.E John Dramani Mahama on Thursday July 18, 2013.

Story By:
Agaba Issa Mugabo, Jane Anyango and Jovia Musubika Kavulu

Mark Wamai

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Special Exam Results -Diploma in Performing Arts 2025/26

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The results for the 2025/2026 special entry examination for the Diploma in Performing Arts held on Saturday 17th May, 2025. Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the Examination and have been recommended to the university’s Admissions Committee for consideration.

Mak Editor

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Mature Age Scheme Exam Results for 2025/2026

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The Office of Academic Registrar, Makerere University has released full results for the Mature Age Entry Scheme Examinations for the Academic Year 2025/2026 held on Saturday 14th December, 2024.

The Candidates who scored a final mark of 50% and above passed the examination and have been recommended by the Pre-Entry & Mature Age Committee to the University’s Admissions Board for Consideration.

The Aptitude Exam  Results for 2025/2026 Academic Year released in February 2025 can be found here.

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Call for Application: 2025 SNRM session 4 Summer School

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Participants in focused group discussions. Leiden-Delft-Erasmus East Africa Research Network (LEARN) in collaboration with the Urban Action Lab at Makerere University a workshop to deliberate strategies for mitigating the impacts of climate change in urban centres in the East African Region, Theme: “Resilient Urban Futures: Adapting Livelihoods to Climate Change”, 4th-5th September 2024, School of Public Health Auditorium, Kampala Uganda.

Context:
Natural resources in Africa are being depleted at an alarming rate due to several factors, including unsustainable human activities, climate change, and population growth. A primary condition of sustainable development is to ensure that the pressures do not exceed the environmental limits, and that demand for the resources does not exceed levels that can be sustainably provided by nature. Therefore, there is a pressing need for transformative, systems-thinking approaches and tools that can tackle the diverse challenges facing these systems. In Africa, this need is compounded by a lack of data and monitoring, which significantly hinders sustainable decision-making.

Investing in young scientists who are committed to take lead in sustainable management of Africa’s natural resources is very important. Capacity building of young scientists will enhance their knowledge and skill on sustainable natural resources and their involvement for implementation of the sustainable development goals (SDG’s) in Africa. To this effect, SNRM summer schools have been implemented in three sessions in 2019, 2020, and 2022 with support from Volkswagen Foundation; to build a critical mass of skilled and competent young natural resource scientists in Africa through training, capacity building and mentorship. Session 4 (2025) will target competent young scientists (MSc and PhD students) in Africa and Germany to further develop their knowledge and skills in systems thinking, advanced data collection and analysis, and application of emerging digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), internet of things (IoT), and embracing transdisciplinary approaches. In addition, we include an ideation workshop where students can work on real problems to come up with solutions for sustainable transformations in natural resource use.

Organizers: Leibniz Universität – Hannover (Germany), University of Antananarivo, University of Abomey Calavi (Benin), Makerere University (Uganda), University of Ghana (Ghana), University of Parakou (Benin), The Technical University of Kenya, with financial support from the Volkswagen Foundation (Germany).

Venue and dates: Nairobi, Kenya, 16-28 November 2025

Target: MSc and PhD students, early in the program of less than 35 years of age from any university/research institution in either sub-Saharan Africa or Germany with an interest in natural resources management.

Participants and Scholarships: The course is fully funded and open to 20 MSc and PhD students from Africa, and 5 from Germany. Funding will cover the costs of air ticket, accommodation, meals, visa, and transportation. However, participants will cover the cost of their travel health insurance.

Topics

SNRM Summer School Session 4: Transformative pathways in biodiversity management and conservation.
This summer school is designed to deliver four modules over a two-week period. The modules are designed to enable the students to acquire new ways of designing data collection protocols and analysis for transformative sustainable natural resources management.

Module 4.1: Data collection I
Skills in data collection for a transformative and sustainable management of natural resources (water, wildlife, forest, land, livestock, crops) monitoring and data collection techniques; remote monitoring tools, earth observation system data, e.g. satellite data sources, LIDAR, and UAV aerial images. Collect and analyse In-situ data on biotic and abiotic parameters, map and analyse data using R or Google Earth Engine, field data collection and retrieving data from online databases.

Module 4.2 Data management and processing
Introduction to tools and methods of managing large and diverse data sets of natural resources such as time series, spatial, directional, and multivariate data. Practicals will include data storage, organization and conversion into various formats using databases such as PostgreSQL and statistical programming software such as R and Python; scripts.

Module 4.3 Ecological monitoring, modelling and management
This module aims to teach participants how to anticipate and validate trends that can be observed in various ecosystems. Lectures include ecological monitoring and its design; population monitoring studies; metrics in population monitoring; methods for monitoring and assessing marine ecosystems; human ecology to socio-ecological systems; climate change impact of ecosystems; suitability assessments; overview of the principles underlying wildlife monitoring and prediction systems for climate change adaptation. Practicals will include field data collection (individual and group); ecological data analysis using R or PAST; modelling and experiencing the behaviour of complex systems using Vensim.

Module 4.4 Natural habitat restoration ideation lab
This module is designed to spur students’ innovation and creativity, and to help students comprehensively identify interdependencies across the 17 SDG goals. Participants will be trained on ideation processes for solutions and intervention for transformative natural resource management. They will work collaboratively in small groups on case studies and develop pathways of transformative sustainable natural resource management. Examples of projects include forest (mangrove) ecosystem and habitat restoration, improved technologies for agricultural production, nature-based solutions for improving water quality, and reversing land degradation.

Language: The course will be delivered in English. Participants are expected to be fluent in writing and speaking the English language.

How to apply

Applicants are kindly requested to fill in the application form available from https://snrmafrica.com/ and submit the following documents in English through the system.

  • a curriculum vitae (maximum 2 pages)
  • a letter of motivation (maximum 1 page)
  • a confirmation of university enrolment
  • a reference letter from the academic supervisor
  • project summary of MSc/ PhD project (1 page including objectives, methodology
    and key findings or expected outcomes).

Important dates
Application deadline: 30th June 2025.
Announcement of accepted applicants: 15th August 2025.
Confirmation of attendance by selected participants: 12th Sept 2025.
Summer school held: 16 – 28 Nov 2025.

Further information is available from

The secretariat info@snrmafrica.com
Dr Lydia Olaka lydiaolaka@tukenya.ac.ke
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Stuetzel stuetzel@gem.uni-hannover.de

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