International wheat breeding research in Eastern and Southern Africa, 1966-97

Abstract

This paper describes and analyzes some of the impacts of wheat improvement research in seven countries in the Eastern and Southern regions of Africa. The countries—South Africa, Ethiopia, Sudan, Kenya, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, and Zambia—produce nearly 99% of all the wheat grown in the region and 97% of all wheat grown in sub-Saharan Africa. The first section of the paper is a brief review of wheat production in the region, concentrating on production levels and growing environments. The second section analyzes the wheat improvement research effort. The third section looks at the pattern of release of wheat varieties over time, as well as the use of wheat germplasm from CIMMYT. The fourth section presents data about varieties that are currently grown in farmers' fields. The fifth section considers some of the organizational issues involved in making wheat breeding research more efficient. The paper concludes that many of the wheat improvement research programs in Eastern and Southern Africa have been successful. However, the small amount of wheat produced in many countries raises the question of whether the same results could have been obtained at lower cost through greater efficiencies in research organization and even greater reliance on research spill-ins.