Goals and objectives; Five themes; Three types of information; Network development; Network options; Technology choices; Software and hardware; Organization and management; Demonstration sites; Major elements of the strategy.

In The Nigerian Rice Economy the authors assess three options for reducing this dependency - tariffs and other trade policies; increasing domestic rice production; and improving post-harvest rice processing and marketing - and identify improved production and post-harvest activities as the most promising. These options however, will require substantially increased public investments in a variety of areas, including research and development, basic infrastructure (for example, irrigation, feeder roads, and electricity), and rice milling technologies.

Agricultural mechanization in Africa south of the Sahara — especially for small farms and businesses — requires a new paradigm to meet the needs of the continent’s evolving farming systems. Can Asia, with its recent success in adopting mechanization, offer a model for Africa? An Evolving Paradigm of Agricultural Mechanization Development analyzes the experiences of eight Asian and five African countries. The authors explore crucial government roles in boosting and supporting mechanization, from import policies to promotion policies to public good policies. Potential approaches presented to facilitating mechanization in Africa include prioritizing market-led hiring services, eliminating distortions, and developing appropriate technologies for the African context. The role of agricultural mechanization within overall agricultural and rural transformation strategies in Africa is also discussed. The book’s recommendations and insights should be useful to national policymakers and the development community, who can adapt this knowledge to local contexts and use it as a foundation for further research.

Developed in collaboration with the Nigerian Academy of Science, this report explores the ways in which science-based private enterprises can be created and encouraged in Nigeria and other developing countries to provide products and services that government is unable to supply in a timely and sustainable manner. Focusing on three critical challenges to health and developmentâ€"safe water, electrical lighting, and malaria therapyâ€"the report identifies a sample technology to address each of these challenges with potential for commercialization in Nigeria and Africa, and uses that sample technology to identify opportunities and barriers to creating the science-based enterprises in Nigeria.

This book—prepared by Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators (ASTI), which is led by IFPRI—offers a comprehensive perspective on the evolution, current status, and future goals of agricultural research and development in Africa, including analyses of the complex underlying issues and challenges involved, as well as insights into how they might be overcome. Agriculture in Africa south of the Sahara is at a prospective tipping point. Growth has accelerated in the past decade, but is unsustainable given increasing use of finite resources. The yield gap in African agriculture is significant, and scenarios on feeding the world’s population into the future highlight the need for Africa to expand its agricultural production. Agricultural Research in Africa: Investing in Future Harvests discusses the need to shift to a growth path based on increased productivity—as in the rest of the developing world— which is essential if Africa is to increase rural incomes and compete in both domestic and international markets. Such a shift ultimately requires building on evolving improvements that collectively translate to deepening rural innovation capacity.

A personal perspectives. Technical change and agricultural development. The agricultural research institution. National agricultural research systems. The international agricultural research system. Reviewing agricultural research programs. Location and scale in agricultural research. The private sector in agricultural research. Institutional and project funding of research. The economic benefits from agricultural research. Research resource allocation. The social sciences in agricultural research. Responsability and agricultural research.