Repositioning agricultural development in Africa through appropriate technology transfer

Abstract

The advancement in agricultural technology frontiers over time has resulted in continuous upward shifts in the production, distribution and consumption of agricultural produce worldwide. Such dramatic shifts in the technology frontier have increased the technology gap between countries and regions because of differences in the physical and institutional environments affecting the adoption of these technologies. The results emanating from effort by African countries in adopting transferred technologies since the twentieth century has yielded little or no result particularly in the agricultural sector. The strong institutional and organisational changes and framework combined with the appropriate transfer and adoption of technologies have increased agricultural productivity and decreased costs. This study is a synthesis of agriculture technology transfer in Africa that, in addition to defining technology transfer, examines the concept of technology transfer, its barriers, opportunities and the needed technology transfer drivers in African agriculture, as well as the processes for effective technology transfer.

Keywords:

• agriculture
• development
• technology drivers
• technology transfer

JEL classifiation:

• N57
• O13
• O30
• O31
• O38
• O55