Recherche agricole et innovation en Afrique tropicale

"Agricultural Research and Innovation in Tropical Africa is an in-depth review of the role of research in the development of West and Central African agriculture. In contrast to the conventional wisdom, this vast region has been the site of successive agricultural growth dynamics, in which research has played a key role. Yet outside of the agro-industrial sector, the adoption of complete "technical packages" has been rare. Innovation in smallholder agriculture has, instead, been partial and selective, following patterns unanticipated by the research system, that reflect constraints operating at the farm level: labor scarcity, limited access to capital, and a combination of agricultural and economic risk. Although a favorable economic environment has been essential for growth and innovation, there is no magic formula concerning the types of institutions most suited to the task. For output markets, the issues seems less one of public versus private, than of reliability. Upstream, both input supply and the availability of improved planting material appear to depend either on outright public support, or else on a vertically integrated crop sector. Agriculture in this region cannot hope to respond to the challenges lying ahead without major efforts by national and international research. Foremost among the challenges is competitiveness in world and local markets, against a background in which both sustainability of production systems and constraints at the farm level are better integrated into research strategies."--Page 15