African food production: research against time

Abstract

In Asia the introduction of improved agricultural techniques has effected what is now commonly called the Green Revolution. A similar drive is urgently needed to arrest the current alarming decline of agricultural productivity in Africa. To this end the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture has since 1967 conducted a comprehensive programme of research concentrating on problems peculiar to Africa and, no less important, devising methods of ensuring that the results can be utilized by small and medium farmers familiar only with traditional methods.