**CONCEPT PAPER**

**CAADP Pillar 4**

***Improving agricultural research, technology dissemination and
adoption***

**1. Introduction**

The Comprehensive Africa Agricultural Development Programme (CAADP) was
established by the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's
Development (AU/NEPAD) in July 2003. The overall goal of CAADP is to
"*Help African countries reach a higher path of economic growth through
agriculturally-led development, which eliminates hunger, reduces poverty
and food insecurity, and enables expansion of exports."*

CAADP aims at increasing agricultural growth rates to six percent per
year to create the wealth needed for rural communities and households in
Africa to prosper. To achieve this goal, CAADP directs investment to
four mutually reinforcing \'pillars\' (i) extending the area under
sustainable land management and reliable water control systems; (ii)
improving rural infrastructure and trade-related capacities for improved
market access; (iii) increasing food supply and reducing hunger; and
(iv) agricultural research, technology dissemination and adoption. Each
of these pillars incorporates policy, institutional reform and capacity
building.

This concept paper outlines how COMESA, through ASARECA, FARNPAN and
other regional stakeholders, is poised to lead in the identification and
prioritization of agricultural research, technology, dissemination and
adoption constraints and challenges in the region. This paper, based
mainly on ASARECA's strategy 2005-2015 which is in line with NEPAD's
Framework for African Agricultural Productivity (FAAP) which responds
directly to achievement of CAADP's pillar four.

**2. Problem**

High and sustained rates of agricultural growth, largely driven by
productivity growth, will be necessary if African countries are to
accelerate poverty reduction. This is because agricultural growth has
powerful leverage effects on the rest of the economy, especially in the
early stages of development and economic transformation, when
agriculture accounts for large shares of national income, employment,
and foreign trade. Growth in agriculture enables general patterns of
development that are employment intensive and hence favourable for the
poor. Agricultural growth benefits both rural and urban poor by
providing more food and raw materials at lower prices; freeing up
foreign exchange for the importation of strategic industrial and capital
goods; providing growing amounts of capital and labour for industrial
development; providing a growing domestic market for nascent national
industries; and reducing poverty by increasing labour productivity and
employment in rural areas.

The poor performance of the agricultural sector explains much of the
slow progress towards reducing poverty and hunger in Africa.
Agricultural growth has barely kept up with population growth rates such
that the growth in per capita agricultural output has lagged far behind
other developing regions. To reverse this trend and meet the Millennium
Development Goal (MDG) of halving poverty by 2015, the sector needs to
grow much faster and maintain annual growth rates of about 6.2 percent
Some countries will require even higher growth rates, given many years
of neglect. Increasing agricultural productivity implies a
transformation from traditional to modern agriculture, which "involves
both technical change and the presence of input, seasonal finance and
marketing systems to increase farm production and deliver it to
consumers at a competitive price.

At the production level, agricultural productivity measures the value of
output for a given level of inputs. To increase agricultural
productivity, the value of output must increase faster than the value of
inputs. Gains in overall agricultural productivity can therefore come
from changes in the physical productivity level through change in
technology employed in the production process, which results in more
output (yields) per unit of input such as land or labour, or from
changes in production and market costs and hence the increased
profitability of farmers. Thus, increasing agricultural productivity not
only relies on improved production efficiencies, such as through
adoption of modern or improved technologies and practices, but also
critically relies on many other factors such as adequate access to
productive resources, well functioning markets and infrastructure, and a
conducive policy environment (e.g. stable macro-economic policies).

Productivity levels in Africa, in terms of both land and labour
productivity, still lag far behind other developing regions. Within
Africa, the situation is especially marked in Southern and Eastern
Africa (excluding South Africa). Low growth rates in cereals yields and
production in Africa have translated over the years into falling
per-capita food production and increased imports, contributing to high
levels of food insecurity at both national and household levels (20
percent of African cereal consumption depends on imports, including food
aid).

Much of the growth of output in Africa, including the COMESA region, has
been due to expanded use of land, labour and livestock, until the 1990s,
when recent estimates imply that productivity growth has played an
increasingly larger role. Total factor productivity grew at an annual
rate of 1.3% on average during the 1990s, accounting for approximately
40% of the 3.1% annual growth in agricultural output. Growth in the
traditional inputs of land, labour, and livestock accounted for the
other 60% of agricultural output growth. To achieve the desired
agricultural growth rate of 6% or more will require total factor
productivity growth rates of 4.4% per year. This is because the growth
in land and labour inputs are unlikely to continue to grow at the same
rate as in the past, and productivity must increase at a faster rate for
output to grow. The expansion of the labour force is tied to the
demographics of the region and changes in the recent past show a
reduction in the growth of labour. While the economically active
population in SSA increased at an average growth rate of 2.1% during
1981-1990, this growth was reduced to 1.9% per year in the 1990s. The
estimated expansion of productivity at an average annual growth rate of
4.4% assumes that labour and capital will continue to grow as in the
1990s, contributing 1.8 percentage points to growth in agriculture.

Lessons learned from the success of agricultural-led growth strategies
elsewhere in developing countries show that productivity and overall
growth in agriculture has been technologically driven. However, one
measure of productivity, the share of areas planted to modern varieties
in Africa, is only a small fraction of those in other regions and
genetic improvement accounts for only 28% of yield growth compared to
88% in Asia. In addition to technology, adequate access to rural
infrastructure has been essential for promoting growth in agriculture as
well as in the non-farm economy and rural towns, and for strengthening
rural-urban demand linkages. Equally important is that growth must be
broad-based, so the majority of smallholders also benefit from
technology innovation. Distortions in prices also need to be removed to
provide incentives for farmers to invest and produce.

**3. FAAP**

NEPAD has requested the Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
to take the lead in developing a framework through which the challenges
prioritized by the CAADP Pillar IV might effectively and efficiently be
achieved. In response to the NEPAD\'s request, FARA has, in consultation
with stakeholders, developed the Framework for African Agricultural
Productivity (FAAP). This framework aims to achieve strengthened
agricultural knowledge systems delivering profitable and sustainable
technologies and that are widely adopted by farmers resulting in
sustained agricultural growth. This will require major improvements in
African capacity for agricultural research, technology development,
dissemination and adoption, together with enabling policies, improved
markets and infrastructure.

The consultation process through which FAAP was developed concluded that
the priorities of CAADP Pillar IV for agricultural research, technology
dissemination and adoption require significant changes in and approaches
to: (i) strengthening Africa\'s capacity to build human and
institutional capacity; (ii) empowering farmers, and (iii) strengthening
agricultural support services. By addressing these factors and actively
integrating the private sector into the process as well as undertaking
the necessary reform of public sector institutions, Africa will
establish the capacity of making a paradigm shift away from a
principally technological package approach to a truly integrated
agricultural research approach and to ensure that researchers (national
and international) work together with smallholders, pastoralists,
extension agencies, the private sector and NGOs to have impact on the
ground.

FAAP is facilitator of institutional changes and capacity building that
will empower farmers. It will encourage different actors such as
research to support the development of viable producer organisations
that can represent the interests of farmers and pastoralists in public
policy making, open new market opportunities for their members with the
required inputs and services.

Application of the FAAP guiding principles will help agricultural
extension systems evolve so as to be increasingly provided through
performance-based contractual arrangements, rather than by civil
servants. Potential extension service providers may include combinations
of private sector, NGOs, farmers' associations, universities, or any
other entities with the capacity to provide extension services.

On agricultural research, FAAP will encourage end-users to be actively
engaged in the processes of agricultural research priority setting,
planning and managing the work programs. Establishment of national
agricultural research strategies through participatory and
multi-disciplinary processes -- and their endorsement of these at
national level through inclusion in the Poverty Reduction Strategies
(PRSs). Greater emphasis should be given to human resource development
and in the agricultural research system, through improved salaries,
performance related pay, better working conditions, and training
opportunities.

FAAP supports the agenda for harmonisation and alignment not only at
country level, but also at sub-regional and continental level, as it
will enhance the overall impact of government funding and development
assistance to agricultural productivity activities by committing to
joint objectives, as well as reducing transaction costs in planning,
reporting and procurement. This should also contribute toward more
comprehensive and sustained funding for activities based on national and
sub-regional priorities.

In order to move towards harmonization, the following gradual changes
are expected at national, sub-regional and continental levels:

-   Moving from "project" mode (under which donors support specific
    activities) to programmatic support (possibly with notional
    earmarking) for most of the budget of recipient institutions
    (including recurrent costs);

-   Adoption of common processes for strategic dialogue and for planning
    the activities to be supported by donors -- these to be made
    consistent with the institutional schedules and time horizons of the
    recipient institutions;

-   common financial management procedures, monitoring and evaluation,
    reporting and review systems -- consistent with those of the
    recipient institutions;

-   establishment of multi-donor trust funds (basket funds) or pooling
    of funds in the accounts of recipient institutions, including
    unrestricted core funding (budget support).

At sub-regional level, ASARECA will seek support from member countries,
FARA, NEPAD, COMESA and donors for political, technical, methodological,
and financial support to programs that are developed along the lines
advocated by the FAAP and its principles. ASARECA has prepared and adopt
a long term strategy and is in the process of developing a medium-term
operational plan for the strategy. In the operation plan, donors will
align and coordinate their support through pledging joint support for
the strategy.

Building on this consensus, FAAP sets out what African stakeholders
think is needed to get African agriculture back on track. The emerging
African agenda for improving agricultural productivity, profitability,
and sustainability through innovation highlights three principal
elements: (i) institutional reform, including the efficient use of
resources for activities that are most likely to achieve productivity
increases; (ii) increasing total investment; and (iii) harmonising
funding.

**4. The goals of ASARECA and other research institutions in COMESA:**

Research entities in COMESA aim at having increased economic growth and
improved livelihoods in COMESA while enhancing the quality of the
environment. This would be achieved through enhanced productivity, value
added and competitiveness of the regional agricultural system. As an
example, ASARECA aims to achieve this by working in four result areas:

1\. promoting generation of demand driven technologies and /innovations

2\. facilitation of regional and national policy options for enhancing
agricultural systems

3\. strengthening of regional and national capacity for implementing
agricultural research in the IAR4D paradigm and

4\. enhancing the availability of information on agricultural research
and development.

A special role for ASARECA in particular, lies in facilitating
collective action that would not take place without a sub-regional
mechanism that is owned by its members. ASARECA will facilitate, for
example, the mobilization of financial and scientific human resources
for collective action. It will also ensure that small national
agricultural research centres (NARS) gain equitable access to
participate in and benefit from research, and facilitate a research
response to emergencies in the sub-region: disease (coffee wilt, cassava
mosaic), drought, floods and post-conflict rehabilitation of NARS.
Specific roles include:

1.  *Services to members*: 1) Support small NARS, 2) Create rapid task
    forces in response to emergencies, 3) Support members in
    post-conflict rehabilitation, 4) Represent the ECA region in
    regional and international fora

2.  *Planning and management:* 1) Monitor external technical and
    institutional environments: 2) Inform members of implications of
    global conventions, 3) Source and allocate new donor funds, 4)
    Reduce transactions costs for all parties: costs of information,
    costs of entry by new partners, and costs of monitoring, evaluation
    and impact assessment

3.  *Facilitate Research*: 1) Coordinate regional research, 2) Help
    create regional research facilities, 3) Manage institutional
    arrangements for the production of regional public goods.

4.  *Forum Function:* 1) exchange experiences and knowledge on S&T
    policies and institutional change.

**5. Integrating planning approaches**

ASARECA's strategy 2005-2015 serves as the framework for integrating the
various networks, programs and projects that ASARECA has created or
adopted on behalf of the region. The strategic planning process works
within an innovation systems framework that encompasses new concerns
with policy and institutions, production-to-consumption chains, and
broader economic and political influences. In the final analysis, the
strategy is the point of reference for priority setting for the
networks, programs and projects. It will provide the necessary space for
them to be entrepreneurial while providing a framework for an eventual
rationalization of efforts.

**6. Agriculture in the ECA region: The need for "business unusual"**

The ASARECA/IFPRI studies of agricultural prospects in the ECA region
outlined two key scenarios that became critical inputs to ASARECA's
positioning. First they elaborated what would happen if current trends
in productivity and growth of areas planted continued. Second, they
elaborated the growth and productivity trends required to achieve the
MDGs.

The ten countries of eastern and central Africa are among the poorest of
Africa. The bulk of the region's population resides in rural areas and
depends on agriculture for income and sustenance. Given the low levels
of productivity growth in the sector, hunger and malnutrition have
deepened in ECA in recent years. Following a "business as usual"
strategy, none of them will achieve the MDGs and, more alarmingly, most
will be worse off or only marginally better off in 2015 than at present.
Cereals imports will rise by almost 50%.

The required growth rate by commodity sector (staples, cash crops, and
livestock) to achieve the MDGs on poverty and hunger are shown in
Table 1. This favourable scenario is termed "Business
[Un]{.underline}usual" scenario because it departs from historical
experience. It would imply in some cases a trebling of the historical
growth rates. While in some countries, the reestablishment of peace and
security would allow a rapid recovery from a diminished baseline, growth
rates generally will have to almost double in staples and livestock and
more than double in cash crops if the MDGs are to be achieved.

**Table 1: Required sector and GDP growth rates to 2015 under
"Business-Unusual" scenario**

![](media/image1.wmf){width="5.5in" height="2.5125in"}

The analysis goes beneath the high-level sectors and identifies the
growth and poverty impacts that will be achieved to 2015 assuming a one
percent additional growth in selected commodity group. The results
identify key staple food crops (maize, sorghum, cassava) and commodity
sub-sectors (milk, oilseeds, and horticulture) that rank high in
consumption and have a strong income elasticity of demand (Figure 1).
While traditional exports and niche products may help some producers,
they are not likely to generate the mass move out of poverty.

**Figure 1: Cumulative GDP gains in ECA to 2015 from 1 percent
additional growth in selected commodity group sub-sectors (US\$
million)**

![](media/image2.wmf){width="3.75in" height="2.7020833333333334in"}

**7. Choice of commodity sub sectors and commodities**

ASARECA's survey of NARS priorities identified a compatible set of
commodity and thematic priorities by sector that are widely shared
regionally. In each commodity sub-sector, ASARECA member-NARIs have
identified the first, second and third commodity priority for them.
Taken at a regional level, the order of priority is based on the number
of countries citing the commodity and the priority rank they gave to it.
Some commodities such as, maize, sorghum are priority for many
countries; other commodities like bananas, cassava) are concentrated in
a few countries. ASARECA provides mechanisms for countries with like
problems to work together without requiring all 10 countries to share
the problem.

-   Cereals: maize, sorghum, rice

-   Pulses: beans, chickpeas, pigeon peas

-   Oil crops: groundnut, sesame, soybean

-   Stimulant crops: coffee, tea, cacao,

-   Horticulture: tomatoes, onions, peppers

-   Industrial crops: cotton, sugarcane,

-   Roots and tubers: cassava, sweet potato, potato

-   Ruminants: traditional cattle, dairy cattle, goats

-   Non-ruminants: pigs, rabbits, guinea pigs

-   Pack animals: camels, donkeys, horses

-   Poultry: indigenous chicken, industrial layers, industrial broilers.

While the investment requirements to achieve the required growth are not
estimated, the implications for research for development institutions
are enormous: "business unusual" calls for productivity and production
gains that have not been realized across the member countries and
sustained in the past.

Productivity growth as a result of research will not lead to economic
growth and poverty reduction without roads, markets, and access to
information. Growth linkages include value added along the
producer-to-consumer chain as well as backward linkages to the seed
industry and other input suppliers. Liberalization of trade at the
global level will contribute less to poverty reduction than gains from
concentrating on major staples satisfying growth in demand from internal
markets and intra-regional trade. Strategic investment should prioritize
efforts to satisfy the internal demand.

The strategy should recognize and exploit opportunities for regional
collaboration. Potential spillovers from research are important and
countries can reduce learning costs by sharing information

**8. Enhancing services to NARS and their development partners**

ASARECA will expand its initiatives and leadership in linking research
to the political dialogue possible in COMESA, NEPAD and the G-8. To do
this ASARECA will monitor political and institutional change in the
global research environment and provide representation in such for a.
ASARECA will take an active role in the CAADP-Support Group at the
regional level to ensure that agricultural R4D is appropriately
represented in debates on technical, institutional and policy issues. If
AU/NEPAD and key donors are debating key issues in a CAADP framework,
ASARECA must be an informed and key player. ASARECA will help its member
countries prepare early action proposals with a regional dimension.
ASARECA will engage in the NEPAD/CAADP process with COMESA. ASARECA will
work with other regional research partners such as FANRPAN in order to
ensure COMESA has a complete agenda for the whole region in terms of
policy priority setting. Early association with COMESA will help COMESA
strengthen its role at the policy level and ensure that the R4D agenda
is not marginalized.

Improve collaboration with the Consultative Group on International
Agricultural Research (CGIAR). The sub-regional organizations are being
called upon by the CGIAR to provide clear signals on regional needs that
allow an effective division of labour and partnerships based on
complementarity. ASARECA studies have shown the spillover potential
among countries of the region and the subsets of countries sharing
particular commodity and thematic concerns. Regional public goods are
usually generated by collective action as close to the problem as
possible; ASARECA being a membership association can set up mechanisms
owned by the sub-region to produce regional public goods. This is
already happening with the recent joint development of the regional
medium term plan for eastern and southern Africa. This will be operated
through network clusters, hub units and flagships to tackle specific and
programmatic issues in the region. The flagships will consist of
combination of three elements - alignment, integrated projects and
platforms.

ASARECA's study of development partners has identified five broad policy
themes affecting research:

1.  *Trade liberalization*: 1) collaboration with COMESA and East
    African Community, 2) ECAPAPA projects on harmonization of
    biosafety, seed, dairy and fertilizer policies, 3) institutional
    innovations favouring sub-regional collaboration on commodities and
    animals crossing national borders

2.  *Agricultural transformation and markets:* 1) Viewing regional
    agricultural planning in a multi-market framework, 2) highlighting
    market access as a criterion in prioritizing development domains, 3)
    identifying marketing as a cross-cutting theme for capacity building

3.  *Poverty reduction:* 1) identification of commodities (e.g., major
    staples, livestock products) with the largest poverty reduction
    impact; 2) use poverty reduction indicators in scoring activities in
    commodity and thematic priority setting in the NPPs.

4.  *Stakeholder participation:* full participation of NARS, IARCs,
    Civil Society Organizations, and Farmer Organizations in NPP
    priority setting, ASARECA strategic planning and calls for proposals
    under competitive grants.

5.  *Regional collaboration in agricultural research:* ASARECA's
    strategy has refined the basis for regional collaboration in terms
    of 1) production of regional public goods, 2) services to
    members, 3) collective action and sub-regional solidarity, 4)
    achievement of economies of scope and scale and 5) the increased
    attractiveness of the region for investment in research by
    governments and donors as a result of the above.

**9. Meeting program challenges: commodities and themes**

ASARECA's strategic planning has identified priorities by commodity
sub-sector, development domain, and theme.

*Commodities:* To have a large impact on the Millennium Development
Goals of reducing poverty and hunger, ASARECA's Networks, Programs and
Projects (NPPs) will continue to address basic staples and commodities
with a growing domestic market (cereals, livestock, dairy products,
edible oils). These offer a larger impact and broader distribution of
gains than either traditional exports with mature markets or niche
exports with thin markets. ASARECA will move to strengthen its coverage
of commodities with the capacity to reduce poverty. The prominent role
of livestock calls for strengthening support to the work of its animal
agriculture network which has a broad range of priorities but narrow
funding. ASARECA will study the opportunity to undertake an initiative
in oilseeds, a commodity sub-sector that has demand potential but its
potential for regional action may be more limited. Fruits, vegetables
and horticultural crops are the third area in which increased attention
is indicated.

*Themes:* ASARECA has identified three thematic areas, (which by
extension, have relevance to the COMESA region given the consultations,
commissioned papers and surveys undertaken) that are critical areas for
strengthening: 1) applied social sciences in agricultural research, 2)
integrated and participatory approaches associated with natural
resources management, and 3) technology uptake and technology
up-scaling.

NARIs and the NPPs are faced with the challenge of mainstreaming
critical issues like HIV/AIDS, gender, and climate change. Although
ASARECA will never have the capacity to lead the technical response, it
is imperative that it spearheads internalization of the implications of
these topical issues in AR4D systems of the ECA.

The three thematic issues highlight in a more general way the need for
greater regional integration of agricultural research issues.. ASARECA
Commodity networks have moved vigorously to incorporate the
production-to-consumption chain in their analysis. They have all tried
experiences with technology uptake in some fashion and have all
identified weaknesses in their capacity to do policy analysis, applied
social sciences and marketing. Institutional analysis is absent. The
strengthening of technology transfer will benefit from the participatory
approaches of the natural resources management-oriented networks and
programs.

ASARECA will move to address these weaknesses through strengthening its
own capacity to 1) identify cross-cutting problems, 2) effectively find
and recruit partners and consultants to initiate new activities, and 3)
manage cross-network collaboration on policy, economic and institutional
constraints.

10\. Conclusion:

Agricultural Research Institutions such as ASARECA, FARNPAN, and others
need to strengthen their program management and program integration, and
partner with COMESA more strongly to ensure policy support for the
agricultural research agenda. This is a precursor and a precondition for
serious efforts to rationalize the portfolio, structure and management
of NPPs. In the case of ASARECA, this will be implemented through the
merger of the existing 17 Networks Programmes and Projects to seven
programmes. Capacity development and institutional strengthening
including innovation processes for technology uptake and upscaling;
forestry and natural resource management; policy and advocacy;
agro-biodiversity and biotechnology; livestock and fisheries, and staple
crops and non-staple priority crops. Overall, in all these areas,
ASARECA will need to work closely with COMESA to agree on ways to ensure
broader policy action is taken and Governments are delivering the AU
recommended minimum of 10% of public sector budget to agriculture,
particularly key agricultural research areas that will drive sector
growth.