The Evolution of Agricultural Education and Training: Global Insights of Relevance for Africa

In 1959, on the eve of Africa’s independence, Africa exported modest food surpluses while India confronted a food crisis. Facing the threat of a 28 million ton shortfall in food grain supplies, the Government of India requested Ford Foundation funding for an international team of agricultural experts to prepare an emergency report recommending measures to address India’s projected food shortfall. The ensuing report, India’s Food Crisis and Steps to Meet It, became one of the most influential reports in Asian development circles in the 1960s (Ford Foundation 1959). The team called for an increase in the number of trained scientists, stepped-up research on food crop production and the import of new technology as key drivers of agricultural development. With strong political leadership, continuity of government funding and donor guarantees of food aid to feed the cities for a decade, India began a sixteen year march to push up wheat and rice yields until it became self-sufficient in 1981.