This paper presents a historical overview of plant breeding research, variety release and seed supply of staple food grains in Zimbabwe, and assesses the impacts of the new varieties on yields using national aggregate yield data. The paper also analyses farm-level factors determining...

During the last 3 decades, donors and governments have invested in the development and dissemination of new technologies in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa. Though a wide range of improved technologies has been developed, adoption remains low without a significant impact on crop...

It is widely believed that a Green Revolution similar to the one achieved in Asia is impossible in Sub-Saharan Africa. Although grain yields have been stagnant in this region, there are some signs of the intensification of farming systems in the face of growing population pressure on limited...

This paper draws upon development economics theory, demographic projections, and empirical evidence to consider the likely consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic for the agricultural sector of the hardest-hit countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. We identify four processes that have been...

For Bangladesh food security was synonymous with achieving self-sufficiency in rice production and stabilization in rice prices. The country has made good progress in increasing rice production through technological progress, facilitated by private sector investment in small scale irrigation....

Social protection aims to provide a national platform for smoothly transitioning from a chaotic collection of shock responses to an institutionalized system for risk and non-risk management. For the poorest, the transition aims to move away from ad hoc, unpredictable relief to national safety...

This paper analysed the growth performance of non-rice crop sectors by estimating total factor productivity (TFP) growth for the selected coarse cereals viz., maize, sorghum and pearl millet in India. The analysis indicates that the TFP growth contributed substantially to the output growth of...

The maize green revolution, which increased maize yields through the use of improved varieties and fertilizer, has stalled since the mid-eighties in Kenya. This paper examines whether the stagnation of yields continued in the 1990s in spite of the implementation of the maize liberalization...

This study analyses income, expenditure and food consumption data in Ethiopia to help explains the country's high probability of national food consumption shortfalls. The study argues that to reach the goal of increased national food security, it is necessary to improve market functioning,...