IARCs, four agricultural research institutes (ARIs), three international nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and a river basin agency (CGIAR Science Council, 2004).

3.3 Technology Generation and Infrastructure

3.3.1 Technology generation
Many SSA countries inherited an agricultural research infrastructure established by former colonial powers. Some inherited highly specialized institutions that did not necessarily address their domestic agricultural needs; many of these institutions were unsustainable after independence when financial and human resources were withdrawn.

Despite significant expansion in the 1970s and 1980s, agricultural research in Africa remains fragmented (Anderson et al., 1994). More than half the countries in SSA employ fewer than 100 full-time researchers and governments still conduct most R&D, employing more than 75% of R&D staff in 2000. The number of agriculture-related universities, colleges and schools increased significantly and their contribution to agricultural R&D increased from 8% in 1971 to 19% in 2000. The capacity of many institutions, however, remains limited.

Nonprofit research institutions linked to producer organizations generally receive most of their funding through taxes levied on production or exports. Such is the case for research on tea in Kenya, Malawi and Tanzania, on coffee in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, on cotton in Zambia and on sugar in Mauritius and South Africa. Nonprofit institutions, however, still play a small role in SSA, contributing about 3% of SSA’s total agricultural research capacity in 2000 (Beintema and Stads, 2004).

The distribution of technology is an integral part of any AKST system and can be accomplished via formal, informal or private distribution systems. The formal system typically involves the researcher or institution disseminating information to either a general public or specialized group through conferences, workshops and publications. This type of distribution is narrow in scope and the number of people affected is small. Knowledge is further distributed by extension services to its clients. Individuals in the community control access to information about specific topics and understanding these control mechanisms is necessary to increase the effectiveness of information dissemination.

Private sector involvement in the distribution of technology in sub-Saharan Africa is largely focused on agrochemicals and small-farm equipment and machinery. The role of the private sector is increasing as a result of trade liberalization in many SSA countries, but the environmental and safety standards of its activities are not well-regulated.

3.3.1.1 Local and traditional knowledge and innovation
Local and traditional knowledge related to agriculture ranges from production planning, cultivation, harvest practices and post-harvest handling, to storage and food processing methods. Professional specialization over the past few decades has marginalized local and traditional knowledge and the farmer-driven AKST concept. Farmers have been assumed to be relatively passive actors whose own knowledge needed to be replaced and improved. The role of women

farmers in local and traditional knowledge systems has been even less valued and gone largely unexamined. However, as multistakeholder approaches to agroecosystem management started to become more common during the 1990s and as policy-making started to favor evidence-based procedures, place-based user knowledge began to regain value in science governance.

Through informal learning and adaptation, farmers, especially small-scale producers in the tropics have developed a wide range of farming practices that are compatible with their ecological niches. The biodiverse character of many farming practices facilitates environmental sustainability by provisioning diverse ecological services (Di Falco and Chavas, 2006). These practices help to ensure the conservation of the diverse genetic pool of landraces needed for modern plant breeding (Brush, 2000).

Without recognition of local and traditional knowledge and its use, technological innovations that are targeted, relevant and appropriate for the poor will be difficult to achieve (Bellon, 2006). Participatory research provides opportunities for local and traditional knowledge to interact and coevolve with formal knowledge. Formal education curricula that includes locally adapted resource management as an important focus (Gyasi et al., 2004) is an effective tool for recognizing and using traditional knowledge.

It is important to consider the cultural, ethnic and geographical origin of extension workers when preparing programs to work with farmers, including matters of dialect and terminology. Supporting networks of traditional practitioners and community exchanges can help disseminate useful and relevant local and traditional knowledge, and enable communities to participate more actively in development.

Innovative approaches are necessary to integrate and support local and traditional knowledge because its characteristics do not always harmonize with existing arrangements. For example, the normal criteria for patenting do not apply to local and traditional knowledge as this is generally preserved through oral tradition and demonstration rather than written documentation; more often than not it emerges gradually rather than in distinct increments.

The question of ownership of specific knowledge practices and of the choice of language in which to record knowledge is important. For example, West African farmers developed varieties of cowpea more resistant to bruchid beetles in storage, but the gene responsible for this resistance was later identified, isolated and patented by the UK’s Agricultural Genetics Company (GRAIN, 1990). An instructive example of benefit sharing was provided by LUBILOSA, an international locust control endeavor that resulted in a mycoinsecticide, commercialized as Green Muscle and whose benefits are shared with national institutions (Dent and Lomer, 2001).

Evolving forms of protection of rights over local and traditional knowledge include material transfer agreements that involve providing material (resources or information) in exchange for monetary or non-monetary benefits. Examples of fair and equitable benefit sharing between users and custodians of traditional knowledge can be found in several countries. Local and traditional knowledge practices should
be referenced and cited when referred to by others in books or training programs.