Posted on September, 17, 2018 at 10:29 am
By Wangari Ndirangu
Kenya requires over 40 percent Agricultural researchers to satisfy its research potential.
Despite this and the recent hiring of some interns, the Kenya Agricultural Livestock Research organization (KALRO) says research capacity is dwindling following the departure and retirement of senior researchers.
Experts in the Agriculture sector had met at a high level meeting on Agriculture Research in Kenya that the number of researchers in the sector is quickly dwindling as most of them with Masters and PHD degrees are above 50 years of age.
Speaking during the meeting on Frdiay, State Department of Agriculture Research Principal Secretary (PS), Prof. Hamadi Boga acknowledged that the challenge of human resource has attracted the government attention and consultations are going on to ensure the issue is captured.
“We are aware that a substantial number of researchers will be retiring in the next one decade. Government has been actualizing a number of strategies and now that we have the information we will need to have an action plan,” noted the PS, adding that they will be working with higher institutes of learning as part of ensuring that the research agenda is maintained even in the midst of low funding.
The PS noted that the conversation should be triggered, noting that if we want to be progressive in the country, then there is need to support sciences.
Prof. Boga said that by the end of next year, the government will need to establish between users and producers of resource between the two ministries of Agriculture and Education and time is of essence.
He noted that the government is reviewing its various policies on research to recognize gaps in order to sustain the initiative and ensure that the systems are aligned in the work being done.
According to the report dubbed Agricultural Research and Development Factsheet update, more than 85 percent of agricultural researchers in the country are set to retire in the next ten year a situation that might compromise research in the country.
Nienke Beintema , the Programme head, Agricultural Science & Technology Indicators (ASTI) the country has a pool of 1,158 researchers compared to 3,025 and 2975 researchers in Ethiopia and Nigeria respectively.
“The large share of PHD researchers at most agricultural research agencies in Kenya are in their 50s and 60s and this situation is particularly serious at the KALRO”, she emphasized.
As of 2016, she said, two thirds of the PHD-qualified researchers and about half of Bachelor of Science and a Master’s of Science (MSc)-qualified researchers were more than 50 years old.
Beintema advised that the Kenyan government research institutes need solid hiring, training, and mentorship plans, backed by government support.
“Exempting KALRO from the country’s civil service hiring freeze would also enable pressing human resource gaps to be filled,” she added.
The report puts the number of PHD-qualified researchers employed in the higher education sector surpassing the number employed at KALRO at 220 and 179 respectively during the 2008-2016.
On funding, Beintema suggested that the national Government needs to re-allocate commodity-tax revenues for coffee; sugar and tea back to agricultural research as this would secure ongoing research and development for these key commodities.
Source: Kenya News Agency (KNA)