At independence in 1960, Africa was a modest food exporter while Asia was engulfed in a food crisis. The Green Revolution boosted food production in Asia and the global food problem shifted to Africa. However, science and technology have been promoted on an ad hoc basis in Africa's 45 years of...

Eastern and Southern Africa, in particular, have been burdened with chronic food insecurity, pervasive rural poverty and natural resource degradation. In many countries, agricultural research and development (R&D) has had limited success in improving agricultural productivity and the...

Sorghum and millet are important for human consumption in marginal rainfall regions, for low income consumers in other regions and for beer production in Zimbabwe. After independence the research and policy emphasis on sorghum shifted towards communal farmers, from red-seeded to the white-seeded...

The Southern African Development Community (SADC)/International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program (SMIP) was started in 1983 as a regional initiative of the SADC in collaboration with one of the International Agricultural Research Centres....

Pearl millet is the most widely grown and utilized cereal in northern Namibia especially in Ovambo and Kavango regions. A millet variety was identified in the late 1980s from the Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program nursery in 1986 and officially released in 1990, under the name Okashana 1. This...

Maize was introduced in Tanzania in the 16th century but research on appropriate varieties and management practices did not get underway until the 1940s. In 1974, a National Maize Research Program (NMRP) was established to co-ordinate maize research. During 1974-1994 the NMRP released 15 varieties. ...

Over the last 40 years several open-pollinated and hybrid maize varieties were developed for different agro-ecologies in Ethiopia. This study employed the economic surplus method for an ex-post evaluation of maize technology generation and transfer investment made in Ethiopia from 1986 to 2000. The ...

Groundnut research in Zimbabwe dates back to the 1950s. Makulu Red is a long season variety and it was released to farmers in 1966. Following its release, a considerable amount of research was undertaken that led to the release of four improved long season varieties, five short season varieties and ...

The objective of this study was to assess the impact of sunflower research, extension and the enabling environment in Zimbabwe from 1976 to 2000. The study concentrated on comparing the social costs and returns of the sunflower R&D investment. Both primary and secondary data were used in the...

This study analyses the impact of cotton research and development in Zimbabwe from 1970 to 1995. A benefit-cost analysis calculated a 47% rate of return to cotton R&D investments and showed that the investments in past cotton R&D were profitable. The assessment of the institutional impact...