Building African Scientific Capacity for Agricultural Development

Abstract

Eicher, C.K., 1990. Building African scient.ific capacity for agricultural development. Agric. Econ.,.During Africa's first t.wo decades of independence from 1960 to 1980, priority was given to increasing the size of national extension services because it was assumed that technology could be imported from industrial countries and the International Agricultural Research Centers. Over the past decade, donors have turned their attention to assisting national agricultural research systems (NARS). But many NARS are performing poorly and are faced with a high turnover of scientific staff and inadequate operating budgets. Moreover, the present donor-financed project by project and country by country approach to building African scientific capacity is seriously flawed. This paper examines Africa's agricultural research history over the past six decades and draws lessons for strengthening national and regional agricultural research systems over the coming 30 years."The true measure of the success of a program of international and technical collaboration is not in its accomplishments during the period it is in force but rather in what happens after foreign aid has been withdrawn." -George HARRAR, 1967, p. 20.

Sources of agricultural productivity growth and stagnation in sub‐Saharan Africa

“…First, the time lags for research impacts may stretch back farther than the data available to construct the research stock variable. Other possible reasons discussed in the literature include lack of critical mass of researchers, lack of spending per researcher, lack research historically in tropical and desert zones, and lack of congruence between output and research mix (Lipton, 1988;Eicher, 1990).…”

Resources, Policies, and Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa

“…Despite these successes, national investments in agricultural science and technology have remained weak in SSA, limiting countries' capacities to adapt and disseminate more technologies to local farmers (Eicher, 1990;Pardey, Roseboom, and Beintema, 1997;Beintema and Stads, 2011). Compared with Asia and Latin America, adoption rates for new crop varieties and other technologies remain low in SSA (Evenson and Gollin, 2003).…”

“…The objectives of this report are to assess the agricultural growth record in Sub-Saharan Africa and the role of research and development (R&D) and other policies in stimulating higher productivity. Previous studies have identifi ed a key role of national R&D capacities in raising agricultural productivity in developing countries (Hayami and Ruttan, 1985;Evenson and Fuglie, 2010), although agricultural R&D capacity in Sub-Saharan Africa has remained low by international norms (Eicher, 1990;Pardey, Roseboom, and Beintema, 1997;Paarlberg, 2008). While our analysis reveals that most of the recent acceleration in agriculture's growth has not been productivity-led (it has been primarily resource-led), a handful of countries have sustained modest growth in agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) over the past 1 In this report we defi ne Sub-Saharan Africa as the 48 African countries that lie south of the Sahara Desert (including island states) as they existed in 2010, except South Africa.…”

The Global Need for Plant Breeding Capacity: What Roles for the Public and Private Sectors?

“…In many developing countries, the fl at or slightly downward trend in public investment in agricultural research has led to a disproportionately large reduction in research capacity. While research expenditures have stagnated, the number of scientists employed in public research institutes has continued to increase, resulting in declining expenditure per scientist, a rise in the share of expenditures allocated to salaries, and reductions in operational budgets (Eicher, 1990). Faced with increasing budgetary pressure, national agricultural research organizations in many developing countries have recently started to downsize, restructure, and consolidate.…”

“…Some donors have switched to a strategy of funding for graduate education in universities within the South, but at least in the case of plant breeding that strategy offers limited opportunities, because the number of quality plant breeding graduate programs in the South is limited. If donors are to make a signifi cant impact on capacity building in plant breeding, many feel it would have to be through a strong long-term commitment to rebuilding tertiary education in the agricultural sciences (e.g., Eicher, 1990). It is diffi cult to be optimistic that this will happen.…”