ZAMBIA
• Zambia’s long-term trend of declining public agricultural R&D investments continued from 2001–08 due to weakened government and donor support and, in 2005, spending fell to an historic low.
• Research staff numbers and qualification levels deteriorated from 2001–06 largely due to a government hiring freeze and limited training. In 2006, staff numbers began to rise, but mainly at the junior level.
• The government is the main funder of agricultural R&D—supplemented by limited support from foreign donors and development banks—but spending is largely allocated to salaries and overhead.
• Despite some recent positive developments, years of underinvestment in agricultural R&D have taken their toll on Zambia’s agencies, such as the Zambia Agricultural Research Institute (ZARI), and they continue to struggle with funding issues that hinder their performance.
ZIMBABWE
• Agricultural R&D has been significantly constrained by the country’s economic decline over the past decade and, since 2003, most donors have suspended agricultural R&D funding.
• Spending and researcher levels at Zimbabwe’s main agricultural research agency, the Department of Research and Specialist Services (DR&SS), have declined considerably since 2003.
• The share of researchers at DR&SS with MSc and PhD qualifications, at only 15 percent, is very low compared to other major agricultural R&D agencies in Sub-Saharan Africa.
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