Regional collaboration for research impact: the case for SADC regional development and adaptability of improved sorghum and pearl millet varieties

摘要

Public and private investments in technology development offer high payoffs if the resulting technologies are distributed and applied regionally across national borders. Economies of scale are commonly being sought in the private sector and in public-funded, international agricultural research systems. The international application of technology and associated scale economies are readily apparent in the experience of the ICRISAT/Southern African Development Community (SADC)-Sorghum and Millet Improvement Program (SMIP), which has shown that regional collaboration in crop breeding makes good agricultural and economic sense. Recent analyses of the adaptation of sorghum and pearl millet varieties in southern Africa provide a scientific justificationfor strengthening regional collaboration in breeding. This evidence is reinforced by the fact that countries throughout southern Africa have clearly benefited from spillovers in crop varieties. The regionalization of seed markets has provided a foundation for seed delivery to flood- and drought-relief programs. The implications of these findings merit further discussion.