Advancing Organic Agriculture Research in Africa—A Case Study of the Science Track of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th African Organic Conferences (AOCs)

The development of certified organic agriculture in Africa has been partly impeded by limited sound science-based information to tackle multifarious challenges facing the subsector along the value chains. Robust and well-articulated research strategies are key to driving this desired development. Therefore, a case study was carried out to appraise the science track of the last four African Organic Conferences (AOCs) with a view to identifying the direction of research activities in the continent across the regions and suggest areas presently being overlooked. Out of the 251 research papers evaluated, the majority were dealing with agronomy (41.4%) and socioeconomic (16.3%) aspects during the four editions of AOC. Research areas largely overlooked include organic aquaculture, policy issues, standards and certification, cross-disciplinary and participatory research methods, health and safety of organic products and research methodology. Papers presented at the AOCs were spread across the regions and outside Africa as follows: West (48.6%), East (28.2%), Southern (7.1%), North (<1%), Central (<1%) and outside the continent (14.3%). The paper also discusses strategies that can be adopted in moving organic agriculture research forward in the continent.