{jathumbnail off}{jcomments off}Agricultural development is a sine qua non fo improving livelihoods in Africa’s predominantlyrural economies, yet agricultural productivity has hardly improved and African food production percapita continues to decline. This is not because of a lack of planning efforts, but rather because thesehave not been of the scale required to have an impact on such huge problems. Past efforts have also no been sufficiently holistic for advancing comple systems and have not been pursued with thenecessary long-term vision and willingness to take the risks that are inherent in implementinginnovations.

To break the poverty trap experienced by the majority of African smallholders andpastoralists, these issues must be addressed. Targets for African poverty reduction are not being achieved. Many individual programmes and institutions show good returns to investment in agricultural research and development, but the sum of their collective effort falls far short of making a significant impact at the national level on poverty reduction and food security.2 Examples of innovations that have had significant impact Significant impact comes from significanintellectual and financial input. The two billion people – 30 per cent of the world’s total – that depend on the Haber–Bosch process of synthesisings (million Kshs )