President's Comments - July 15, 2004

For the IAC's report to UN Secretary entitiled "Realizing the Promise and Potential of African Agriculture: Science and Technology Strategies for Improving Agricultural Productivity and Food Security in Africa"

July 15, 2004

 On June 25th, at the United Nations Headquarter, the InterAcademy Council (IAC) has presented its second new report to the UN Secretary General Kofi Annan. The report entitiled “Realizing the Promise and Potential of African Agriculture: Science and Technology Strategies for Improving Agricultural Productivity and Food Security in Africa”. The report was a result of IAC Study Panel commissioned by Kofi Annan.

 The report offers specific recommendations for the strategic science and technology policies to improve agricultural productivity in Africa, particularly on building research network systems, strengthening academic activities of universities and research institutions, bringing up a new generation of agricultural scientists, making policies on agricultural market economy and launching innovative science and technology pilot programs. This report represents one of the most authoratative reports on African agriculture at present, thus it is expected that the report will play important roles in consideration for the science and technology policies on this and related issues of the world.

 The Science Council of Japan (SCJ) has been actively involved in the process of preparation of report as one of the fifteen national academies of the IAC Board. Professor Ryuichi Ishii of Nihon University, a world expert on crop science and a member of SCJ, served as a member of the Study Panel on this IAC report.

 Working closely with international organizations such as IAC, the United Nations and the International Council of Science (ICSU), the Science Council of Japan will continue to contribute to address major issues of global scale and to deliver policy recommendations.

by Kiyoshi Kurokawa, President of the Science Council of Japan