Institutions and the African farmer (Anglais)

Getting African agriculture moving, is the most complex, demanding task facing policymakers, agricultural scientists, and donors over the coming twenty-five years. This document examines Africa's empty harvest in historical perspective, and analyzes the...  Voir la suite Getting African agriculture moving, is the most complex, demanding task facing policymakers, agricultural scientists, and donors over the coming twenty-five years. This document examines Africa's empty harvest in historical perspective, and analyzes the failure of agricultural institutions imported from other continents (e.g., training and visit extension, and the land grant university model). The author argues that there is an urgent need for African agriculturalists to experiment with different agricultural institutions, and to craft national "agricultural knowledge triangles" that include research, extension, and agricultural higher education, given African universities' weak link in the agricultural knowledge triangle. The document then analyzes the reasons underlying the erosion in the capacity of Africa's faculties of agriculture, to instead offer high quality graduate training in agriculture. Taking the long view of building sustainable agricultural institutions, challenging puzzles are outlined, that require debate, and further study: creating a good institutional environment; crafting agricultural knowledge triangles; the case for long-term scientific assistance; the expanded aid agenda; changing roles of public, and private institutions, and nongovernmental organizations; institution building vs. marginal approaches; and, strategic issues for improving the quality of graduate education.  Réduire