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Over the last forty years, demand for food in developing countries has increased more than threefold. In response, these countries have increased their production of irrigated crops from two to fourfold. As a result, average yield has more than doubled for rice and maize, trebled for wheat, and quadrupled for fruits and vegetables. Water productivity has increased sharply during the same time.

However, these gains have been neither universally successful nor universal in scope. Governments led the expansion of large-scale irrigation, and the results have been mixed, with many supply-led and bureaucratic programs producing disappointing results. In many basins, water productivity remains startlingly low, and adoption of modern technology is slow.

Capacity building in policy research is a major concern in sub-Saharan Africa and is a core subject in ECAPAPA’s agenda. This article by Stephanie Neilson of the International Development Research Center (IDRC) provides some useful insights on how the IDRC-supported research and its partners are contributing to the generation and production of research results that are being used for policy formulation and policy change.

Using their own evidence: building policy capacities in the south

Does policy research matter? Key issues about agriculture in Africa and the emerging development priorities for the new millennium

In light of its evolution as the instrument of research organizations of the region, ASARECA’s mission is “fighting poverty, reducing hunger and enhancing resources through regional collective action in agricultural research for development.” ASARECA’s vision is to be a significant player in facilitating innovation and making spillovers happen by ensuring that the benefits of research results in one country are available to all users and that mechanisms are developed to make the link with the national innovation systems. The mission highlights the organization’s commitment to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) to reduce poverty and hunger by half before 2015 and to sustain the productivity of the natural environment.

PAAP Policy arena (Status of policies, laws and regulations for key agricultural sub-sectors in ECA)

2012 Global Hunger Index | Summary 5World hunger, according to the 2012 Global Hunger Index (GHI), has declined somewhat since 1990 but remains “serious.” The global average masks dramatic differences among regions and countries. Regionally, the highest GHI scores are in South Asia and Sub-Saha-ran Africa. South Asia reduced its GHI score significantly between 1990 and 1996—mainly by reducing the share of underweight chil-dren—but could not maintain this rapid progress. Though Sub-Saha-ran Africa made less progress than South Asia in the 1990s, it has caught up since the turn of the millennium, with its 2012 GHI score falling below that of South Asia.

This issue of the newsletter highlights the key areas of the Technology Uptake and Upscaling Support Initiative (TUUSI) strategy 2008-2013. The strategy defines the strategic niche for TUUSI and priority projects that will contribute to ASARECA’s goal, purpose and to objectives of  the Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme (CAADP) Pillar IV with respect to agricultural extension in the eastern and central Africa (ECA). Note that details of ASARECA’s rebranding will be published in a later edition of this newsletter.

Something decidedly new is on the horizon in Africa, something that began in the mid-1990s. Many African economies appear to have turned the corner and moved to a path of faster and steadier economic growth. Their performance over 1995–2005 reverses the collapses over 1975–85 and the stagnations over 1985–95. And for the first time in three decades, African economies  are  growing  with  the  rest  of  the  world.  Average  growth  in  the  sub-Saharan economies was 5.4 percent in 2005 and 2006. The consensus projection is 5.3 percent for 2007 and 5.4 percent for 2008. Leading the way are the oil and mineral exporters. But 18 non- mineral economies, with more than a third of the sub-Saharan African people, have also been doing well. Global economic growth has been fairly steady over the last 10 years-at 3.2 percent.

Towards the end of last year, the World Bank released the 2007 Africa Development Indicators report exploring the patterns of growth in sub-Saharan Africa over the past three decades. It finds that the volatility of growth has been greater than in any other region. Volatility has dampened expectations and investments-and has obscured some periods of good performance for some countries. The report shows that pickups in growth were seldom sustained, hence, Africa’s flat economic performance over this period. The challenge for economic policymakers in Africa, is how best to sustain the pickups in growth. The report shows that avoiding economic declines is as important as promoting growth.

In the previous issue of the newsletter, we published a review of a selection of participatory tools in the analysis, synthesis, and decision making related to natural resource management and policy. In this issue, we present a case study on the impact of social capital and conflict management in multiple resource regimes. The study describes the status of natural resources in Kabale and their different property regimes, examines the prevalence and the different types of conflicts over the use and management of natural resources and the role, strengths, and limits of social capital mechanisms for managing conflicts. Finally, the study proposes a framework for strengthening the synergy between social capital and policy, and building local capacity for alternative conflict management.

Enhancement of skills in agricultural information and communication management in the ASARECA region

In the development of its new strategic plan, ASARECA identified knowledge management, technology uptake and upscaling as among the critical thematic areas in agricultural research for development (AR4D) that require strengthening. The strategy review process noted that while the ASARECA networks had adopted a production-to-consumption concept in their approach to AR4D and had, to some extent, acquired experience with technology uptake, there were still weaknesses in capacity, especially in competencies and in understanding emerging approaches for upscaling knowledge and technologies. In addition, a need for greater integration of the ASARECA technical portfolio was highlighted as critical for harnessing the synergy of programmes and for providing support in cross-cutting thematic issues such as upscaling, policy and natural resource management to commodity oriented programmes.

The Knowledge Management and Upscaling Programme (KMUS) was established as one of the 7 research programmes and mandated to address technology uptake and upscaling, and knowledge management. The programme was further mandated to implement the elements in CAADP Pillar IV that deal with technology dissemination and adoption, agricultural extension, education and training, and farmer empowerment.

The PAAP 2008-2013 strategy takes an integrated approach to tackling poverty by proposing approaches that will contribute to enhanced productivity and competitiveness along the value chain through reforming policies, regulations and procedures that impede investment in appropriate technologies, and that restrict sectoral growth and trade. Drawing up evidence-based options when formulating policy will be promoted. The result will be efficient market chains along the production-to-consumption continuum, improved links between research and development, and supportive policies and institutions. Ultimately, supportive policies and institutions will encourage investment by offering incentives that will allow judicious use of resources to enhance livelihoods while at the same time will ensure that natural resources are conserved and allowed to rejuvenate for future generations.

The strategy defines the scope of Agro-biotechnology to encompass a range of diverse technologies derived from molecular genetics, plant physiology (especially tissue culture related techniques), genetic engineering and the emergent sciences such as bioinformatics, genomics and proteomics as applied in crop improvement and management as well as applications of biotechnology in the livestock sub-sector. These technologies are clustered on the basis of themes, and prioritized. Identified thematic areas include: (1) Biotechnology development, transfer and commercialization (2) Biotechnology infrastructure and human capacity mobilization and development. (3) Agro-biodiversity conservation and utilization. (4) Bio-policy development and harmonization and (5) Biotechnology communication and outreach.