Student training is at the heart of the capacity building policy of CORAF, the leader in agricultural research in West and Central Africa. With this in mind, student scientific days were organised in Togo from 22 to 26 April 2024 to share the results of doctoral and master's theses with CORAF's Scientific and Technical Committee (STC).
This initiative was part of the food systems resilience programme, which aims to support national centres of specialisation in building up a critical mass of researchers in order to conduct high-quality research and ensure the next generation of researchers.
For example, in 2023, CORAF launched a call for applications for study grants, which led to the selection of 10 candidates for doctoral grants on subjects of interest in the West African sub-region. The selection was based on the region's priorities, taking into account the constraints of the main agricultural value chains in the region. The results of their work will help to find solutions to the challenges identified.
The meeting in Lomé was an opportunity for CORAF's Scientific and Technical Committee to analyse and provide better guidance to the scholarship holders on their research work. These scholarship students from Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Côte d'Ivoire, Chad and Togo will be better supported, guided and oriented so that at the end of their research, the sub-region can have practical agricultural solutions that will eventually be easily passed on to users.
In practical terms, during the work in Lomé, each student and his or her supervisor presented their work project, how they intend to go about it, what the methods are to achieve it, what results will be generated and together we will analyse it in depth to ensure that each student leaves with the right guidance to ensure that his or her work is useful.
