Exploring the futures of agricultural research andinnovations (ARI) systems in Africa (original) (raw)
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Over the years, substantial investments in agricultural research have been made in sub-Saharan Africa. The few studies on research investments show impressive returns that are comparable to those achieved in developed countries. However, problems such as recurrent hunger, poverty, food insecurity and natural resource degradation continue to plague the region. Agricultural development arena is changing rapidly toward non-linear innovation systems of complex actor networks and multiple sources of innovations characterized by dynamic and iterative learning processes that constantly inform, renew and advance the state of the systems. Most actors and institutions are not linked effectively often from imaginary boundaries created by prescribed mandates and parochial interests. While more investments in research and development are required for the region, it is becoming increasingly difficult to justify them in the wake of competing needs in the face of shrinking national budgets. The few impact assessments that have been carried out in the region have been incidental and not linked to the research planning cycle implying that lessons from previous research efforts are not used when planning for subsequent research and development efforts. We are proposing impact orientation to track impact to the attainment of institutional and overall development goals. This calls in part for impact assessment to be made an integral part of planning, monitoring and evaluation along with appreciation of the impact chain and actors involved in the innovation process to demonstrate relevance to development goals and thus justify funding.
2014
Effective agricultural transformation will only be rooted in an approach that generates returns for the smallholder farmers and other stakeholders in the sector in a sustainable manner. Such an approach needs to regard agriculture as a system and use a best-partnership arrangement that engages all the necessary stakeholders along the different commodities and system value chains or value webs. This thinking led to the development of the Sub-Saharan Africa Challenge Program (SSA CP) in 2004. The aim of the SSA CP is to facilitate a substantial increase in the impact of agricultural research and development (ARD) for improved rural livelihood, increased food security and sustainable natural resource management throughout sub-Saharan Africa. To achieve this objective, the SSA CP proposed a new approach to conduct agricultural research, named Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D). This approach entails a multisectoral orientation to problem diagnosis and draws on inte...
Strengthening Agricultural Research in Africa
Natural Resources Forum, 1999
T he current decline in per capita food production in Africa signals an urgent need to revitalize agricultural research. Accomplishing such a task will require addressing many issues, including demand-led approaches, accountability, building of critical mass, avoidance of duplication, sustainable financing, and capacity strengthening. This brief cannot address all these issues; instead it focuses on generating common Africa-wide goals and priorities and on collaboration for maximum impact, suggesting approaches for consideration by those responsible for African agricultural research policy and implementation.
A review of key issues and recent experiences in reforming agricultural research in Africa
ISNAR eBooks, 2003
ISNAR, one of the 16 Future Harvest Centers supported by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), seeks to contribute to the generation and use of knowledge that fosters sustainable and equitable agricultural development. ISNAR's mission is to help bring about innovation in agricultural research institutions to increase the contribution of research to agricultural development for the poor.
Building an Agricultural Research for Development System in Africa
2006
This paper discusses how impact-oriented agricultural research for development systems in Africa can be better organized and managed. Specifically, the paper puts forth the argument that achieving the development targets set by African leaders and the international community, for example, through the Millennium Development Goals, will be extremely difficult without a satisfactory re-orientation of the organization and management of African research for development systems. Such a re-orientation involves carefully linking the agricultural research agenda with national development priorities; improving coordination, interaction, interlinkages, partnerships, and networks among system agents—that is, agricultural research institutes, extension systems, higher education institutions, farmer organizations, civil society, and the private sector—and finding innovative financing and resourcing mechanisms to support the numerous components of the system. Keywords:
Repackaging Agricultural Research for Greater Impact on Agricultural Growth in Africa
Journal of food security, 2013
Despite the enormous research activities embarked upon by the various research entities in Africa over time, the expected research impacts remain obscure. This paper is a compilation of facts and figures from published peer reviewed articles, agricultural research and development reports from national and international institutions, and base-line data from the Africa Rice Centre aimed at elucidating the performance of agricultural research in Africa between 1960 and 2010. It discusses the constraints to the visible impact of agricultural research on the growth of Africa's economy, and suggests how to repackage agricultural research for more visible impact on Africa's economic growth. Results show that agricultural research has been beneficial for African agriculture widely and is believed to be the backbone of the economic growth of the continent. Agricultural research has also served as the bedrock of agricultural technological transformation to enhance agricultural growth. Research has helped to increase agricultural production and productivity and food security in several countries. Also, investment in agricultural research has yielded positive impact on poverty reduction and food security. However, food security and poverty are still visibly mining the African population. The major constraints in the utilization of agricultural research results are the lack of adequate public investment in agriculture, lack of well-trained researchers, inadequate research infrastructures and poor management of the agricultural research and development system. Findings show that in order to package agricultural research for visible impact on the economy, agricultural research systems would need to be adequately funded and handled by skilled human resources under good governance. An effective innovative agricultural policy would demand the initial acknowledgment that a break from the past is necessary to 'produce more and better' in Africa and that successful agricultural research systems should be designed in a framework of co-construction, co-execution and co-evaluation.
Advances in Integrated Soil Fertility Management in sub-Saharan Africa: Challenges and Opportunities
It is now more than a decade since integrated agricultural research for development (IAR4D) was proposed as a "new approach" or "set of good practices" for organising research to address complex problems of agricultural development, food security and poverty in sub-Saharan Africa. Since then, there have been efforts to investigate its impact in comparison to traditional research and development approaches. Although a growing number of publications are testifying to positive impacts of IAR4D and related agricultural research for development (AR4D) approaches, there has been limited explicit attention on its underpinning Theories of Changethe mechanisms or pathways by which it brings about impact. With the aim of contributing to a more robust grounding of the theory of change of IAR4D, this paper uses a comprehensive review of literature on IAR4D and related work experience of the authors in East and West Africa to critically engage with the implicit and explicit explanations and pathways for how and why IAR4D helps to achieve impact. This paper finds four emerging impact pathways focused on (1) market linkage, (2) social capital, (3) institutional change or (4) innovation capacity as critical mediating factors. Acknowledging articulation of each of these mediating pathways as encouraging progress, the article suggests putting these together in an integrated theory of change that also draws on established theories such as Multi-Level Perspective (Geels, 2005) and theory of adaptive change (Holling et al., 2002) to provide clear guidance and tools for designing and implementing effective AR4D interventions.
The Future of Agriculture in Africa
other invited authors. Papers in this series explore current and future challenges by anticipating the pathways to human progress, human development, and human well-being. This series includes papers on a wide range of topics, with a special emphasis on interdisciplinary perspectives and a development orientation.