Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs - Agricultural Innovation in Africa

Africa's New Science and Innovation Agenda

Calestous Juma — Tue, 14 May 2013 09:27:51 -0500

"Today all African presidents are supported by economic advisors. The time has come for them to complement the work of economic advisors with science, engineering, and innovation advisors. But advisors are not just people who whisper in the ears of heads of state. They are professionals whose work is guided by proper laws, procedures, and staff trained in policy analysis."

HKS Plays Role in New African Agribusiness Center

Doug Gavel and Calestous Juma — Mon, 06 May 2013 19:15:46 -0500

"Our goal is to bring experiences from around the world to bear on the design of farm-based centers, schools, colleges and universities. We have already drawn substantially from the lessons of EARTH University in Costa Rica which has over two decades of experience on agribusiness education in the tropics. I served on the governing board of this pioneering university whose model is most suited to African conditions."

Rebooting African Economies: Science and Engineering for Rapid Economic Transformation

Calestous Juma — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 16:41:11 -0500

A lecture by Calestous Juma from 3:00–5:30 PM, April 18, 2013, at the Golf Course Hotel in Kampala, Uganda. Organized by the Association for Strengthening Agricultural Research in Eastern and Central Africa (ASARECA). Africa's identity has historically been associated with its vast natural resources which have shaped not only its political culture but also defined its place in the global family of nations. In recent years, however, a new picture of Africa has started to emerge. African economies are increasingly being view as rapid adopters of emerging technologies. The aim of this lecture is to identify approaches for leveraging the world's fund of scientific, technological, and engineering knowledge for rapid economic transformation.

Engineering Green Growth

Calestous Juma — Thu, 28 Feb 2013 16:08:17 -0600

"Recent trends in a variety of engineering fields have shown the prospects of pursuing ecologically sound technological leapfrogging. For example, the rapid adoption of mobile phones in African countries demonstrates how connectivity can be increased while reducing the ecological footprint of communication. Similarly, the rapid adoption of genetically engineered crops has shown how agricultural production can be enhanced while reducing the use of harmful agricultural chemicals."

Africa and Brazil at the Dawn of New Economic Diplomacy

Calestous Juma — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 15:47:01 -0600

"There are many lessons that Africa can learn from Brazil. The key is that Brazil has had a long record of creating new institutions to address major national challenges. It stands out as a leader in aviation because of having created an aerospace conglomerate, EMBRAER, whose annual revenue stands at about US$5.7 billion. Brazil offers key lessons on how to make Africa's rapidly expanding aerospace industry safer and more reliable."

Developing Country Farmers Bridge the 'Biotechnology Divide'

Calestous Juma — Fri, 22 Feb 2013 08:50:07 -0600

"Farmers in developing countries, however, are bridging the 'biotechnology divide.' According to a new report by Clive James of the International Service for the Acquisition of Agri-Biotech Applications (ISAAA), 'For the first time, developing countries grew more, 52% of global biotech crops in 2012 than industrialized countries at 48%.'"

Africa's Economic Growth Prospects

Calestous Juma — Fri, 15 Feb 2013 09:42:49 -0600

"The rise in technocratic leadership in Africa is directly related to the emphasis that the continent is placing on economic transformation. But more important, there is growing preference for blending democratic change with managerial competence in running public affairs. This suggests a different type of governance system that combines western party politics and eastern technocracy. It would appear from these nascent trends that Africa is starting to shape its economic future by borrowing ideas from around the world and adapting them to local needs."

Forging New Diplomatic Bonds Through Science and Technology

Calestous Juma — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 16:29:57 -0600

"Slovenia and Kenya are inventing a form of science and technology diplomacy that is based on commitment to taking on global challenges irrespective of size and level of development. The cooperation points to a new future in which science and technology will increasingly become the bond that ties nations together in new diplomatic arrangements."

Persecuting Biotechnology

Calestous Juma — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 10:41:00 -0600

"Nearly two decades of propaganda and advocacy based on questionable scientific evidence forced many countries to forego the benefits of a new technology even before its merits had been assessed. In effect, these restrictions have introduced a new class of risks associated with not being able adopt a new technology even where it would confer benefits to farmers, consumers, and industrialists."

Biotechnology and Africa's Strategic Interests

Calestous Juma — Mon, 03 Dec 2012 15:59:04 -0600

"Biotechnology offers Africa a wider range of economic opportunities than the Green Revolution did. It is already being used to improve food production and establish or revive cotton production. Its economic impact is therefore likely to go well beyond the farm sector to include industrial development."

Trading Places: Commerce Drives Science And Technology In Africa

Calestous Juma — Tue, 27 Nov 2012 22:06:40 -0600

"Africa used mobile phones to create a radically new way of transferring money, thereby restructuring the banking sector. Mobile technology is on the verge of transforming other traditional industries including education and health, among others. In education, Africa can leapfrog into digital books and mobile learning to become a leading source of new educational businesses and industries. In healthcare, mobile technology will transform the very idea of a hospital."

Africa And Obama: What The Continent Should Do In His Second Term

Calestous Juma — Fri, 09 Nov 2012 12:42:48 -0600

"Africa's national diversity is becoming a burden for diplomatic interaction. It is more efficient for the United States to work with regional groups in Africa than with individual states. This means that efforts to foster regional integration by creating larger markets, simplifying trading rules, reducing corruption, and investing in regional infrastructure to promote movement of goods will go a long way toward strengthening US-Africa relations."

Poor Infrastructure Is Africa's Soft Underbelly

Calestous Juma — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 15:03:15 -0500

"Poor road networks illustrate this point. African farmers without adequate road networks are condemned to grow not what they can eat, but what they can carry on their heads and eat quickly before pests destroy it. As a result, nearly half of the hungry people in Africa are farmers."

Africa's Leadership Fails Billionaire Mo Ibrahim's Test, But Technocrats Rise

Calestous Juma — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 00:01:58 -0500

"The main challenge is the lack of alignment between infrastructure strategies and the need to expand engineering training. As a result, there are very few engineering programs in African universities. There is also a perception that engineering is associated with large projects that tend to be linked to high costs, corruption and ecological degradation."

Innovation Key to Unlocking Africa's Horticultural Potential

Calestous Juma — Thu, 23 Aug 2012 15:33:11 -0500

"Biotechnology has the promise of leading to increased food security and sustainable forestry practices, as well as improving health in developing countries by enhancing food nutrition. In agriculture, biotechnology has enabled the genetic alteration of crops, improved soil productivity, and enhanced natural weed and pest control. Unfortunately, such potential has largely remained untapped by African countries."

Africa Needs to Invest More in 'Life Sciences' to Benefit from Technology

Steve Mbogo and Calestous Juma — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 14:31:19 -0500

Africa is yet to adopt full scale technology-led development. Steve Mbogo spoke to the Director of the Belfer Center's Science, Technology, and Globalisation Project and professor at Harvard University Calestous Juma on the opportunities that await the continent as a late comer.

Africa Must Wake Up to the Reality That Hunger is Now a National Security Issue

Calestous Juma — Tue, 14 Aug 2012 16:12:29 -0500

"The tools available to India in the 1960s are not sufficient to address the challenges that African agriculture now faces. These include a rapidly-growing population, productivity loss due to ecological disruption, environmental decay, droughts, climate change, and conflict. Biotechnology offers additional tools that can help Africa address some of these challenges. It is another moment that calls for the kind of political courage that led to the adoption of the Green Revolution."

The China-Africa Bond: Science, Technology and Engineering Diplomacy

Calestous Juma — Wed, 25 Jul 2012 16:09:53 -0500

"The challenge is finding an entry point for fostering science, technology and engineering cooperation between China and Africa. An obvious starting point is agriculture. There are two reasons for this suggestion. First, agricultural transformation was one of the first major programs launched by China after the adoption of the 1982 constitution."

No Need to Panic about Corn

Robert Paarlberg — Fri, 20 Jul 2012 18:35:42 -0500

"US officials have long scolded China for not letting markets work, and for trying to run too much of their modern economy through state targets and inflexible mandates. The damage done by the US' ethanol mandate in the context of today's Midwest drought gives Chinese officials a chance to tell their counterparts from the US, 'Practice what you preach'."

Economic Impacts and Impact Dynamics of Bt (Bacillus thuringiensis) Cotton in India

Jonas Kathage, Matin Qaim and Calestous Juma — Wed, 11 Jul 2012 19:20:17 -0500

Despite widespread adoption of genetically modified crops in many countries, heated controversies about their advantages and disadvantages continue. Especially for developing countries, there are concerns that genetically modified crops fail to benefit smallholder farmers and contribute to social and economic hardship. Many economic studies contradict this view, but most of them look at short-term impacts only, so that uncertainty about longer-term effects prevails. The authors address this shortcoming by analyzing economic impacts and impact dynamics of Bt cotton in India.

Why Kenya Has to Adopt Biotechnology in Farming

Calestous Juma — Wed, 27 Jun 2012 09:38:25 -0500

"Those countries that adopt agricultural biotechnology today will be better prepared to use the same techniques to solve health, industrial and environmental problems. The underlying knowledge of genomics is the same and is remarkably versatile. As an early adopter, Kenya is now applying mobile technology to other fields such as health and agriculture."

Senegal's Political Transition Hinges on Fulfilling Economic Dreams of the Young

Calestous Juma — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:54:50 -0500

"Macky Sall, the president-elect, now faces the task of fulfilling the aspirations of the diverse political interests that united behind him to dispatch Wade from office. The support he has received is accompanied by high expectations, especially on the economic front. While Wade ruled by dividing the opposition, Sall will only be able to govern by unifying the country around the larger cause that is the economy."

Executive Program Fosters Regional Innovation

Tue, 27 Mar 2012 09:12:35 -0500

In the modern global economy, nations do not compete; it is specialized regions that compete, according to Calestous Juma, faculty chair of the Innovation for Economic Development executive program. To help countries strengthen their regional innovation systems, the Belfer Center will join Harvard Kennedy School’s Executive Education in sponsoring a high level executive program beginning May 28.

Sowing the Benefits

Calestous Juma — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 14:47:56 -0500

"The next challenge, however, is to build on these achievements and pursue bold steps aimed at upgrading the status and performance of agricultural institutes by creating genuine innovation systems that involve research, training, extension and commercialisation. This process will require bold political action involving high-level leaders, and will come with political risks and debate."

Precision Farming Yields Many Gains

Robert Paarlberg — Thu, 08 Mar 2012 18:09:38 -0600

"Greater precision in modern farming raises a farm's income, brings down food prices, and is good for the environment. China will want to move toward precision farming using its own unique mix of solutions, based on both high-tech and low-tech methods, including both conventional and biotech seeds. The new Chinese farming model that emerges can lead agriculture in all of Asia toward a more prosperous, environmentally sustainable future."

Seeding New African Agricultural Universities

Calestous Juma — Tue, 06 Mar 2012 15:40:00 -0600

"Over the last decade considerable work has been done to redefine the role of government in agricultural research, decentralize research activities, increase stakeholder participation, identify new financial instruments, and strengthen system-wide linkages. These measures have been purposed on an incremental basis. They have indeed yielded commendable results. The next challenge, however, is to build on these achievements and pursue bold steps aimed at upgrading the status and performance of agricultural institutes by creating genuine innovation systems that involve research, training, extension, and commercialization."

Critics of Biotech Crops Proved Wrong

Calestous Juma — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 13:06:45 -0600

"Over the 1996–2010 period, biotechnology crops have reduced 443 million kilogrammes of pesticide use. This did not only reduce the spraying of chemicals that destroyed biological diversity, but they also cut down harmful exposure by farmers."

Africa's Quest for Prosperity

Calestous Juma — Mon, 26 Dec 2011 19:36:00 -0600

"It is projected that Africa will have up to 240m mobile broadband connections by 2015. However, the economic gains will only be efficiently realised through regionally harmonised spectrum allocation. Such regional growth dynamics will also be realised in other areas of infrastructure investment such as energy, transport and irrigation."

Feeding the Next Generation: Science, Business, and Public Policy

Calestous Juma, Josh Drake and L. Val Giddings — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:10:58 -0600

Today, three of ten people on the planet rely on others to grow their food and 900 million remain chronically food insecure. By 2050 the global demand for agricultural production is expected to double. Half of the global population will live in cities and will need to be fed through market channels. Meeting these demands will require significant increases in agricultural productivity. Modern, science-driven farming including genetically modified crops represents the best chance of generating the increases in agricultural productivity necessary to feed our future. This paper's overall conclusion is that genetically modified crops can and should play a critical role in agricultural productivity. It is offers a roadmap for those interested in objectively evaluating both the risk and benefits of biotechnology in agriculture.

Africa's Agricultural Revolution Will Be Driven by Research and Technology

Calestous Juma — Tue, 20 Dec 2011 11:59:20 -0600

"Unlike the Asian Green Revolution that focused on increasing productivity, Africa's agricultural revolution is focusing on using new technologies to solve local problems. Its humanistic touch is particularly evident in the attention it is paying to improving local crops."