10 US$) per agricultural worker increased by 2.4 percent per year for Africa as a whole, while cereal yields increased by 2.2 percent.<sup>13</sup> Part of the accelerated productivity growth is attributable to renewed government commitments to promoting and improving the agricultural sector, as reflected in the CAADP goals related to promoting agricultural markets and regional integration, improving farmers’ access to markets, combating inequality, and advancing agricultural technology. The largest strides have been made where concerted investments have taken place. For example, the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) program, led by Africa Rice, an international research center based in Cȏte d’Ivoire, introduced and promoted new, interspecific cultivars of rice developed through tissue culture techniques to cross African and Asian varieties that do not naturally interbreed. The resulting varieties have generated significantly greater yields and spread widely in West Africa over a short period of time.

The release of new crop varieties and rates of farmer-level adoption of improved varieties also increased noticeably from 1997–98 to 2009–10, perhaps signaling some progress in agricultural research and development (AR&D) and its impacts in SSA that bode well for the years ahead (Alene _et al._ 2011). Meanwhile, a global initiative successfully eradicated rinderpest, a disease that affects cattle and can be disastrous for Sub-Saharan African pastoralists; the last outbreak was reported in 2001.<sup>14</sup> To date the vast majority of progress in developing improved plant and animal genetic material and natural resources management practices for Sub-Saharan African agriculture have come from publicly or philanthropically funded national or international research efforts. Private sector AR&D, though growing, remains nascent.<sup>15</sup> The spread of information and communication (ICT) technology unlocks further potential, in particular by making markets more efficient and reducing price dispersion (Aker 2010, Aker and Mbiti 2010). The limited available evidence points to strong, albeit heterogeneous impacts. The rollout of extension programs through ICTs is still in its infancy (Nakasone, Torero and Minten, 2014). Overall though, despite promising examples of positive impacts on rural livelihoods of ICT—the so-called digital dividends—these have not yet scaled up to the extent expected (Deichmann, Goyal, Mishra 2016). Technology is helping address some of the barriers, but as with any successful intervention in agriculture, simultaneous complementary interventions on different fronts will be needed (on which, more below).

A recent update on our understanding of African agricultural and rural areas, drawing on six nationally representative LSMS-ISA household surveys (from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, Niger, Tanzania, and Uganda)<sup>16</sup> further shows that while fertilizer and agro-chemical application rates remain very low in several countries in the region, they also have become substantial in several others, including in certain areas within countries (Sheahan and Barrett 2016). This has been fueled in part by government subsidy programs and high-level attention afforded to the subject by the 2006 Africa Fertilizer Summit in Abuja. Country-level factors, embodying policy and broader institutional phenomena, appear most important in driving agricultural input adoption.

Careful study of rural factor markets shows substantial activity in labor and land rental markets. Twenty to 40 percent of farmers rent or borrow land and 30 to 50 percent of farmers hire labor across SSA (Dillon and Barrett 2016). At the same time, household factor endowments (labor, land) still affect

> 13 _World Development Indicators,_ consulted November 26, 2016.

14 The Global Rinderpest Eradication Programme report, <u>http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/documents/AH/GREP_flyer.pdf.</u> 15 Private firms surveyed in 27 African countries invested around USD 26 million in AR&D, representing only 2 percent of the total research investments that year, with South Africa alone responsible for nearly two-thirds (Beintema and Stads, 2006). Since then, there has been an increase in private AR&D investments, in particular in the seed industry (Pray _et al._ 2011). For example, in 2008, private AR&D in Kenya and Senegal amounted to USD 1.6-3.2 million and USD 3.6-4.7 million, respectively, representing 0.25-0.05 percent of agricultural GDP in Kenya and 0.18-2.4 percent in Senegal (IFPRI _et al._ 2011).

16 These studies were largely completed under the auspices of the World Bank’s Agriculture in Africa: Telling Facts from Myths project (http://www.worldbank.org/en/programs/africa-myths-and-facts) and are forthcoming in a special issue of _Food Policy_ .