Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture

The Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM), established by ten Vice Chancellors in 2004, is a consortium of universities in Africa. December 2022 membership stands at 170 universities in 40 countries. RUFORUM is registered as an International NGO (FORR78950) in Uganda and coordinated by a Secretariat hosted at Makerere University in Kampala. The organisation evolved from its predecessor, the Forum on Agricultural Resource Husbandry (FORUM) program of the Rockefeller Foundation.

Our Vision
The RUFORUM Vision 2030 envisions vibrant, transformative universities catalyzing sustainable, inclusive agricultural development to feed and create prosperity for Africa.

Our Mission
RUFORUM’s mission is to strengthen the capacities of universities to foster innovations responsive to demands of small-holder farmers through the training of high quality researchers, the output of impact-oriented research and the maintenance of collaborative working relations among researchers, farmers, national agricultural research institutions and governments.

Our Strategic Objectives

Building synergy from networks of specialization to develop quality human resources and capacity required to intensify and increase Africa’s agricultural productivity and competitiveness.
Ensuring the products, processes and knowledge developed through university research directly respond to and are used by value chain actors in the agri-food system to catalyse transformation; and,
Marshalling resources and strategically allocating them to enable African universities to transform into viable institutional entities responsive to national aspirations and conditions through intensive knowledge-sharing and collective action

OUR SERVICES

COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Community Action Research Programme (CARP) are designed to establish platforms to link with communities and other stakeholders in action research with 1 PhD and 2 MSc  students being trained with 8 undergraduate research assistants. A CARP budget  will normally be between US$350,000 to $450,000. Read more

RUFORUM Entrepreneurship Challenge Programme (RECAP) is an accelerator program that is institutionalized at an applicant member university to facilitate student’s innovation and business incubation. Through the RECAP, agricultural universities will have the opportunity to establish Agribusiness incubation Centers (AIC) as part of operationalizing the Entrepreneurship Challenge Program to foster the further development of innovative business ideas leading to products and/or services on national to regional scale. The budget is US$50,000. Read more

RUFORUM Impact stories
The Platform showcases RUFORUM activities in African Universities such as trained students in PhD and Msc, technologies developed, research grants awarded and other. Read more

ADVOCACY AND PROMOTION                                                                                                                                 Engages with policy makers around agriculture and higher education at national and continental level and beyond
Brokers partnerships for the RUFORUM member universities and  member university country

Engages with policy makers around agriculture and higher education at national and continental level and beyond
Brokers partnerships for the RUFORUM member universities and  member university country

CAPACITY BUILDING

 Mainstreaming new approaches within university teaching/research that have impact across the agricultural sector’s value chain.
Improving adaptive capacities of universities to produce high quality and innovative training, research, & outreach service
Increased use of technology to support effective, decentralized learning and sharing of knowledge
Training a critical mass of MSc and PhD graduates who are responsive to stakeholder needs and development goal.
Catalyzing Technical and Vocational skills development and enhance TVET-University integration
Increasing the participation and voice of women in Science, Technology and Innovation