The UWA Institute of Agriculture recently partnered with the University of Nairobi (UoN) to offer a four-week intensive master class in Performance Measurement using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA).

Facilitated by Dr Amin Mugera, who is a co-leader of the Institute’s Research Theme Agribusiness Ecosystems, the online course attracted 65 Master’s and PhD students and four UoN faculty members from across nine African countries.

The course was hosted by UoN Professor John Mburu and funded by the Australia Africa University Network.

Image: UoN Faculty of Agriculture students at an October award ceremony. Credit: Professor John Mburu

Dr Mugera said the economic growth of sub-Saharan countries largely depended on agriculture.

“However, growth is hampered by low productivity in the agriculture sector and other sectors of the economy,” he said.

“The region’s agricultural productivity growth continues to lag behind the rest of the world mainly due to low adoption and diffusion of available production technologies.”

The master class equipped trainees with knowledge and practical skills in mathematical programming in order to evaluate how well private or public agricultural enterprises were using available resources.

“From a public policy perspective, this is important in addressing the low productivity problem,” Dr Mugera said.

“The participants gained experience in efficiency analysis using DEA, which they can apply in their professional lives and future research projects.”

The master class will be offered by the UWA School of Agriculture and Environment in 2022 as an online 12-week micro-credential course. Find out more and enrol here.