The impact of agricultural research in tropical Africa

This report is one of the results of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research's (CGIAR) overall endeavor to improve the understanding of the impact of agricultural research, particularly the Consultative Group institutes, on the developing countries and their contribution to improving agricultural food production performance. Although this endeavor has worldwide dimensions, this report refers to tropical Africa alone. Divided into two sections, the first section contains general considerations and sets the framework for the impact assessment. It introduces the problems research is faced with and examines the present state of international and national agricultural research activities. The second section presents a detailed impact assessment concentrating on the collaboration between the CGIAR system and the national systems and discusses research impacts on agricultural production.