Prizes to

reward R&D

for African

agriculture

New agricultural techniques adapted to African conditions are desperately needed. 

       Donors could elicit more and better research by offering cash prizes in proportion to the social value of innovations. 

       A separate page describes this initiative.

Impacts of agricultural R&D

in Africa

Africans have in fact benefited from agricultural research -- but Africa has had much less research, for less time, than other regions.

       A paper entitled "Paying for Prosperity" makes the case for increased investment; slides from a talk at a Woodrow Wilson Center conference sets it in the broader context of trade and development.

Papers on impact of agricultural R&D

in Africa

      Since 1994, I have been working with African researchers on the adoption and impact of new technology.  An overview of this work is in presentation slides on "Impacts of New Technology in the Sahel" in web view or as a PowerPoint file (in English).  More details are available in a CD-ROM compilation of case studies (in French), and training manuals on impact assessment (in French and English). The French-language training manual has been updated with new case studies in June 2003.

        My own latest paper in this work documents the impacts of genetic improvement for cocoa in Ghana.  I have done several previous papers on genetic improvement for cassava in Nigeria, rice in Senegal, and sorghum in Sudan, as well as studies of agronomic improvement through soil conservation in Burkina Faso and confinement feeding of livestock in Mali and in Senegal.  Earlier work concerned resettlement and factor substitution in Zimbabwe, as well as more general papers on farm technology and policy, and the impacts of R&D across Africa.

Quality certification for infant foods

A little-noticed factor contributing to infant malnutrition is the lack of quality-certification services for baby foods. 

        Here is a description of the project, with photos and links to journal articles in AJAE and Food Policy. 

        A short article about this work appeared in the Chronicle of Higher Education.  Here is a two-page concept note on what to do about it.

Climate and economic performance

The role of winter frosts on population location and economic growth. 

       Frost in winter helps people by killing bugs -- tropical regions lack this natural insecticide, so may need more R&D and other things to help them catch up.  This idea was documented in a 2001 paper in Journal of Economic Growth , and reported in The Times of London, the Toronto Star , the Indianapolis Star , ABCNews.com , and The New Scientist website, plus a two-minute video news item called "frost fortune" produced for ABC television.   To see for yourself, here is a map of frost prevalence in .pdf format, and the raw data in Stata (.dta) format or Excel (.xls) format.