Over the last ten years, international donors and African governments have singled out “inappropriate policies” as a major factor influencing the poor performance of the agricultural sector and the chronic problem of human hunger. Faced with increasing budget deficits, declining export...

In 1993, the Sasakawa/Global 2000 Program (SG) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) began a joint program to demonstrate that substantial productivity increases could be achieved when farmers were given appropriate extension messages and agricultural inputs were delivered on time at reasonable...

A major push supporting improved data collection and analysis is required if African countries are to successfully design and implement results- based Poverty Reduction Strategy Programs (PRSP) and the Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Program (CAADP) being promoted by the New...

Recognizing that science and technology research (S&T) is one of many inputs into the broader development process, USAID/Mali, via its Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, requested an assessment of the current S&T situation in Mali. USAID asked the assessment team to produce a comprehensive...

This paper presents a financial and risk analysis of improved versus traditional maize production technology in Ethiopia, based on yields simulated with the CERES-Maize crop growth model (Schulthess and Ward, 2000). The purpose is to analyze the potential performance of the SG2000/Ministry of...

There is no improved seed-fertilizer technology available that can generate the needed growth in agricultural production in Sub-Saharan Africa to meet food demand by the rapidly increasing population. This paper identifies factors associated with inland valley swamp rice farmers' decisions to...

Recent studies have shown that agricultural research can have high payoffs in Africa, but impact depends on how well technology fits with evolving needs and capacity in the agricultural sector and the rest of the economy. Structural adjustment policies (e.g., market liberalization, currency...

Des études récentes ont montré que la recherche agricole en Afrique peut avoir une rentabilité élevée, mais son impact dépend de l'adaptabilité des nouvelles technologies aux capacités et aux besoins changeants du secteur agricole et du reste de l'économie. Les politiques d'ajustement...