Agriculture, Technology and Development and Sweet Potatoes in

Sub-Saharan Africa
José Falck Zepeda
Research Fellow
Environment and Production Technology Division (EPTD)
Program for Biosafety Systems (PBS)

From left to right: a) Contained greenhouse , KARI Kenya, b) Prof. Paarlberg, KARI, Nairobi, c) Dr. Charles Waturu, Leader Cotton Program,
Thika, Kenya
World Development Report 2008:
Agriculture‟s role in the economy

• Agriculture essential for overall growth in

agriculture-based countries
• Agriculture is a source of livelihoods for
billions, but a huge reservoir of poverty
• Impressive historical successes in using
agriculture for rural poverty reduction
• Stagnant yields in Sub-Saharan Africa
• Rising rural-urban income disparities in the
transforming countries

• Agriculture major user (and abuser) of

natural resources
Agriculture Value Added, 2000
(Million constant US$)
 World Development Report
2008: Agriculture and poverty
• 75% of the world‟s poor are rural and
most are involved in farming
• In the 21st century, agriculture continues
to be fundamental for sustainable
development and poverty reduction
• Agriculture needs to be reinstated to a
prominent level in public investments and
donor priorities

The Agricultural Paradox

“Everybody says its important, few are willing to put money into it”
Why do we need significant improvements
in agricultural productivity / efficiency?
• Population growth
• Increased urbanization
• Reduction in land dedicated to agriculture
• Increases income leading to changes in
diet
• Climate change/variability
• Land degradation
• Water issues
The world population by region
Africa‟s population and growth
by region

Rates of population growth in But rates are expected to

Africa are still high - 2.4 per cent a decline up to 2050
year compared to a world average
of 1.3 per cent
 Urban population dynamics
Annual percent increase in urban Urban population by region (% of
population regional totals)

Urbanization growth rates are falling Nearly half the world population now lives in
overall urban areas. Africa, and Asia and the Pacific,
are the world's least urbanized regions
Percent growth in urbanization level of total
population since 1972 and to 2015: Africa

Source: GEO-3: Global Environmental Outlook. Extracted

2010 http://www.unep.org/geo/geo3/english/410.htm#fig248a
African climate change vulnerability

Source: GEO-3: Global

Environmental Outlook.
Extracted 2010
http://www.unep.org/geo/geo
3/english/410.htm#fig248a
Africa: nominal GDP per capita
(US$)

Source: Wikipedia 2010 ©, extracted 2010

http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Africa_by_gdp.png
Hunger alleviation: Some progress
and some setbacks

Source: Von Grebmer, et al. 2009

 WDR 2008: Main messages
• Growth requires a productivity
revolution in smallholder farming
• Proactive approaches addressing
institutional issues
– Disparity problem requires a
comprehensive approach
– Reduction agriculture‟s large
environmental footprint and climate
proofing farming systems
– Promising new roles for environmental
services for agriculture
– Open multiple pathways out of poverty
such as commercial smallholders, workers
in agriculture and the RNFE, and migrants
– Improve local, national, and global
Yield growth of major field crops
Sub-Saharan Africa 1996-2006

Source, FAOSTAT, 2010

 The global sweet potato yield gap,
1980-2008
Average higher Average Difference % Difference
than 50 lower than • Significant
percentile 50
percentile
global yield
12,327 4,140 8,186 198% gap
Average higher Average Difference % Difference – But may
than 75 lower than be
percentile 75
percentile
overstated
15,862 5,573 10,289 185%
• Source:
Average higher Average Difference % Difference extracted
than 90 higher less
percentile than 90 from
21,704
percentile
6,766 14,939 221%
FAOSTAT
Yield distribution Sub-Saharan
Africa
Higher than SSA Countries
90 percentile Zambia
75 percentile Sudan, Mauritius, Liberia
50 percentile Niger, Senegal, Somalia, Mali, Ethiopia,
Burkina Faso, Angola
25 percentile Congo, Burundi, Rwanda, Cameroon,
Madagascar, Cape Verde, Nigeria, Congo
DR, Benin, Guinea
0-25 percentile Uganda, Togo, Chad, E. Guinea, Sierra
Leone, Côte d'Ivoire, Zimbabwe,
Swaziland, Gabon, Ghana, Mauritania,
Maldives
Source: Extracted from FAOSTAT 2010
Yield gap sweet potato Sub-Saharan Africa
compared to rest of the world, 1980-2008
Yield (Kg/ha) Yield Gap
Average of 21,704 15,447
higher than (247%)
90 percentile
Average of 16,089 9,832
higher than (157%)
75 percentile
Average of 12,436 6,178
higher than (99%)
50 percentile
Africa 6,257 -
average
(excluding
Zambia)
Source: Extracted from FAOSTAT 2010
 Addressing the sweet potato
yield gap in Sub-Saharan Africa
• The following was extracted from “Chapter 16 Sweet Potato in Sub-
Saharan Africa” of the book “The Sweet Potato” by Low et al. 2009

– Experiments conducted in 12 East African environments with 15 improved

genotypes using clean planting material yielded an average of 24.2 t/ha,
compared to the average yield in the region of 5.6 t/ha (Grüneberg et al., 2004)
– The dissemination of clean planting material of improved varieties is capable of
at least doubling current average yields under rainfed conditions from 6 to 12
t/ha.
– Combining such introductions with improved crop and soil fertility management
practices could at least triple existing yields obtained by smallholder farmers to
18–20 t/ha
– Irrigation supplied in a timely manner could also contribute to an additional 30%
yield increase (Niederwieser, 2004).
Constraints / limitations to increased
sweet potato production
• Low yields: soil fertility, weed control
• Pest and diseases
• Labor shortages
• Production systems and holding size :
– Well known smallholder issues including access to credit,
productive and protective inputs, land tenure issues, etc.
• Inadequate research and extension services
• Low multiplication ratios and quality of planting material
• Post-harvest technologies
• Socio-economic and institutional issues

Source: Okigbo 1986, Low et al. 2009

The need for a biotechnological innovation
revolution for smallholder farmers in Africa
• Exhausted conventional plant breeding
approaches in many crops
• No viable alternatives for controlling some
pests and diseases
• Alternatively, chemical and other
conventional control mechanisms may be
too expensive for smallholder producers
 Why GM crop technologies?
• Embodied technologies  it‟s in the seed or
planting material!
• Can be deployed in low resource use production
systems
• Address specific productivity constraints not
easily addressed / intractable problems
 Why GM crop technologies?...
• Flexible – fit with other production systems
– GM and Integrated Pest Management
– GM and organic production
• Impacts can be non-pecuniary, indirect, and
scale neutral
• Scalable
Lessons from 1st generation GM crops
• GM crop impacts have been in average,
positive
– But, average masks significant variability
across households, regions, countries, crops
and traits
– No different than any other technology in
human history!!
• Limiting institutional issues => negative
and/or highly variable outcomes
 Lessons from 1st generation GM
crops…
• Institutional issues including knowledge
flows will determine outcome and impact
• Remarkable history of safe use
• Positive impacts on environment,
biodiversity and society/economy possible
 We need the 2nd generation of GM
crops
• 2nd generation GM crops: increased attention to
improvements in production, productivity-efficiency and
consumer benefits
• We may have no choice but to pursue appropriate first
and second generation GM crops based on
projected/expected demand and supply conditions
IF they prove their worth benefiting society

• Pay special attention to innovative ways to use first &

second generation GM crops => Strigaway technology
Is the R&D pipeline there to respond to multiple and more complex
problems? For developing countries?
 Challenges in and for developing
countries – Investments and priorities
• Insufficient R&D investments
• Identification of priority crops, traits and technology
choices
– Perhaps need more participatory approaches to innovation, not
less…
– Reconnecting plant improvement systems with final clients and
their needs
 Challenges in and for developing
countries – Investments and priorities…
• From public sector to private sector lead innovation
systems
– Public sector in developing countries is investing in
biotechnology R&D and other emerging technologies
– Increasingly complex institutional partnerships
• Investments and the reality of small fragmented agro-
economic-ecologic niches in developing countries
 Challenges for developing
countries - Biosafety
• Regulated technologies
– Compliance with biosafety regulations assure that the technology
meet an agreed safety standard
– Risk assessments and decision making
• Regulatory compliance needs to be done in a cost
effective manner
– Excessively precautionary regulations – beyond what is need to
prove safety – is costly, unnecessary and a waste of scarce
resources
– Regulatory costs can reduce innovation stream and impact public
sector and small private firms disproportionately
 Challenges for developing
Countries – Production paradigms
• Avoid focusing on technological solutions to
complex problems
– BUT, technology is definitively part of the “solution”
• We cannot avoid the political context
• Critical to explore complementarities and
synergies of current production systems
– From a compartmentalized production systems to a
highly interactive and flexible production system
– From „best practice‟ to „best fit‟ to 'best mix of modular
components‟
• Thank you very much!!!
• Asante Sana!!!
• Weebale Nnyo!!!
• Muchas gracias!!!