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UNU Update | |
The newsletter of United Nations
University and its network of research and training centres and programmes |
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Issue 28: November-December 2003 |
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Green Revolution 'has
Africa has been left behind but not bypassed by the Green Revolution, according to Robert Evenson, director of the Economic Growth Centre at Yale University. Prof. Evenson was delivering the first of two presentations on Making Technology Work for the Poor during the 2003 annual lecture series presented by UNU Institute for Natural Resources in Africa (UNU-INRA) and UN Economic Commission for Africa. Evenson said the five-stages Green Revolution process was marked by development of:
Comparing Africa's Green Revolution experience with those of Asia and Latin America, Evenson concluding that Africa was left behind because most IARCs working on traditional cereals (wheat and rice) were located outside the continent and could not deliver modern varieties suitable for the region. Even though releases of modern varieties had only been taking place in Africa over the last 20 years it would be wrong to conclude that "the Green Revolution has bypassed Africa." he said. In his second lecture, Evenson highlighted "The Price of Admission to the Growth Club for African Countries" and "Development Strategies for Africa". He said that the Green Revolution brought the benefits of high productivity, lower unit cost of production and lower food prices. Regions where Green Revolution technologies have not been adopted, including most sub-Saharan African countries, were losing out as a result of their inability to take advantage of the large food price reductions. Turning
to Africa's price of admission to
the "growth club" and in particular the development strategies
needed to speed up green revolution in African countries, Evenson
emphasised the need for first class scientific capacity to deal with the
region's difficult conditions. Some
African countries are too small to generate the necessary scientific
manpower and there is need for cooperation among several African
countries, he said.
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