Many countries in the world have adopted genetically modified organisms as products that can have great beneficial impact on agriculture, industry and trade. However, to date for the whole of Africa, only South Africa has commercialized genetically modified organisms (GMOs). Realizing the high...

The dramatic rise in world food prices since 2007 has commanded the world’s attention. However, in recent months, world food prices have fallen almost as rapidly as they had risen in late 2007 and early 2008, yet as is demonstrated in this report, domestic food price levels in many eastern and...

It is generally agreed that increasing agricultural productivity is critical to stimulating the rate of economic growth in Africa. There are many important and often complementary determinants of agricultural productivity. In this brief and the full paper it draws from, the focus is on...

This study was funded jointly by the Regional Strategic Agricultural Knowledge Support System (Re-SAKSS) for Southern Africa, based at International Water Management Institute, Pretoria, South Africa, and by the United States Agency for International Development's Africa Bureau. Much of the data...

This study ascertained the effects of agricultural commercialization (agricultural net exports), deforestation as represented by exports of forestry products, economic growth and trade liberalization on the level of green house gas (CO2) emissions in Africa. It relied on World Bank data...

Commercialization of agriculture in is a worthy effort in attaining food sufficiency in Africa. However, this needed quest has had an enormous environmental, health and safety implications for the agricultural sector of the continent. This quest has led to intense use of machinery, agrochemicals...

Striga is an indigenous parasitic weed that attacks cereals and other crops in Africa. In maize croplands alone, Striga infests over 2.3 million ha resulting in 1.6 million tons of grain loss worth US $383 million annually. An innovative approach to controlling the parasite was to induce...

This paper investigates sources and determinants of agricultural growth in Africa, concentrating on the growth path during the last three decades. The analysis employs the broader framework provided by empirical growth literature and recent developments in Total Factor Productivity (TFP)...

There are well-founded fears that it is unrealistic to expect Africa to achieve the Millennium Development Goal 1 (MDG1) to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger and to halve the proportion of people who suffer hunger by 2015. Recent efforts of African governments to meet the MDG1 have resulted...