Professor Kanyama Phire Now Ruform Chair At LUANAR
Vice Chancellor of the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) Professor George Kanyama Phiri has become the chairperson of the Regional Universities Forum for Capacity Building in Agriculture (RUFORUM).
Professor Kanyama Phiri was appointed at the RUFORUM’s Biennial Conference during the African Higher Education week which took place in Nairobi, Kenya from 22nd to 26th October, 2018.
Speaking in an interview, the Vice Chancellor said his appointment will benefit Malawian universities that are members of Ruforum. He said this will strengthen the opportunities of these Universities as they will be getting grants from Ruforum for teaching and research.
“In Malawi, there are five universities that are members of Ruforum. I will definitely strengthen the opportunities of Malawian Universities. In addition to that, the country as a whole will also benefit through collaboration with other universities through Ruforum,” said Professor Kanyama Phiri, adding that he will be playing a facilitating role to make sure that each of the member universities and the country benefit.
Professor Phiri added that research projects on various aspects that will be conducted through Ruforum, will be made available to farmers to boost agricultural production in Africa.
“Through Ruforum, the results of research that will be carried out related to improvement of soil fertility, improvement of maize production, animal production and natural resources management in general will be released to farmers and the farmers can in turn utilize their production.
He concluded to say that it is a big opportunity for him to be a chair of Ruforum, not only because of the benefits this will bring to Malawi, but also that it will be his responsibility to make sure that he contributes to the success of all the universities in the region.
The 2018 Biennial conference was unique with a focus on university-agriculture community transformation. It also provided an opportunity for participants to show case their innovations as part of enhancing the university-farmer community partnership and engagement for meaningful innovation. The overall theme of the 2018 Conference was “Aligning African Universities to accelerate attainment of Africa’s Agenda 2063”.