A wide variety of multilateral and bilateral agencies, private sector firms, and African governments have a need for high quality, reliable data on agricultural productivity. This paper identifies numerous situations where poor data lead to incorrect estimates of African land and labor...

Senegal has experienced a number of spurts in agricultural production and productivity growth since independence, yet average trends from 1960 through 1993 have been either stagnant (in terms of aggregate production and yields), or negative (in terms of real value of production). Although use of...

This research addresses two questions: Why is fertilizer not yet fulfilling its potential as a major stimulus to agricultural productivity in SSA? What can be done to improve the situation? Our answers are based on an extensive review of fertilizer response, profitability, and policy literature...

To reverse the declining trends in soil fertility levels in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), the use of fertilizers and other land augmenting technologies needs to increase. While overall fertilizer consumption in SSA has increased by as much as 200% from 1970 levels, the growth has been highly...

In 1993, the Sasakawa/Global 2000 Program (SG) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) began a joint program to demonstrate that substantial productivity increases could be achieved when farmers were given appropriate extension messages and agricultural inputs were delivered on time at reasonable...

This evaluation goes into greater depth to aid researchers in determining adequacy of comprehensive statistical programs for analysis of small- or medium-size data sets.

This paper presents the results of the first phase of a project aimed at analyzing the links between agricultural growth in Mali and child nutritional status. The objective of this project is to strengthen these links through applied research and extension. The first phase of the project was...

Background paper for the Geneva Trade and Development Forum Crans-Montana, Switzerland September 17-20, 2008

Recognizing that science and technology research (S&T) is one of many inputs into the broader development process, USAID/Mali, via its Initiative to End Hunger in Africa, requested an assessment of the current S&T situation in Mali. USAID asked the assessment team to produce a comprehensive...