Within the international community there is a growing awareness of the need for a broader and deeper understanding of the relationship between governments and farmers in sub-Saharan Africa. Nowhere in the agricultural sector is this awareness growing more rapidly than in the seed sub-sector. Here the quest for alternatives to the large-scale government seed supply organizations of the 1970s and 1980s is becoming more urgent in the face of Africa's stagnating crop yields and mounting food deficits. This book presents the results of the first study to investigate the African seed sector in detail, using case study material from Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. It provides a new conceptual approach to analysing structural and organizational issues in the seed sector. The author assesses the likely impact on the seed sector of the two trends of structural adjustment and greater emphasis on community participation. The book also explains the policy lessons for organising the delivery of inputs such as seeds. It will be of interest to economists, other social scientists and policy makers concerned with agriculture and development.

Similarities and dominant paradigms; Chronology and elements of the dominant paradigms of agricultural development; Insights for paradigms of African Agricultural Development.

This volume explores the usefulness of the Asian model of agricultural development for Africa, where, even before the recent world food crisis, half the population lived on less than on dollar a day, and a staggering one in three people and one third of all children were undernourished. Africa has abundant natural resources; agriculture provides most of its jobs, a third of national income and a larger portion of total export earnings. However the levels of land and labor productivity rank among the worst in the world. The book explains Africa’s productivity gap and proposes ways to close it, by examining recent experience in Africa and by drawing on lessons from Asia.

In most developing countries, good quality seed is hard to obtain and farmers struggle to save seed from one year to the next. This title takes a people-centred look at the companies, public agencies and family farms that are taking on this role and making a difference to food security across Africa.

A changing climate is likely to have a drastic impact on crop yields in Africa. The purpose of this book is to document the effects of climate change on agriculture in Africa and to discuss strategies for adaptation to hotter weather and less predictable rainfall. These strategies include promoting opportunities for farmers to adopt technologies that produce optimal results in terms of crop yield and income under local agro-ecological and socioeconomic conditions. The focus is on sub-Saharan Africa, an area that is already affected by changing patterns of heat and rainfall. Because of the high prevalence of subsistence farming, food insecurity, and extreme poverty in this region, there is a great need for practical adaptation strategies. The book includes empirical research in Ethiopia, Kenya, South Africa, Tanzania, and other Sub-Saharan countries, and the conclusion summarizes policy-relevant findings from the chapters. It is aimed at advanced students, researchers, extension and development practitioners, and officials of government agencies, NGOs, and funding agencies. It also will provide supplementary reading for courses in environment and development and in agricultural economics.

Based on fieldwork and involving farmers, extension workers and researchers, this is an edited volume of studies of how farmers successfully experiment and innovate to increase productivity, often in adverse and resource-poor conditions. It covers a wide range of countries and varieties of farming and shows how successful and motivating an approach that builds on farmer innovation can be. It confirms the resourcefulness of the farmers themselves and provides an alternative to the conventional "transfer of technology" development paradigm - one that recognizes the farmers themselves as the major resource.