Building African Scientific Capacity in Food and Agriculture

After 50 years of independence, Africa is still a profoundly agrarian continent where 2/3 of the people directly or indirectly derive their living from agriculture. The central question facing African governments and donor agencies today is “What can be done to transform agriculture in Africa?” The most difficult challenge facing Africa is how to borrow and generate new technology that is supported by an efficient set of core institutions that can increase agricultural productivity and reduce poverty. Building an interactive system of three core institutions – research, education and extension – has been, and will remain, a multigenerational challenge. This paper focuses on building African research capacity and graduate education in Africa in an era of globalization.