CALL FOR INPUT
The Agricultural Innovation in Africa (AIA) Project is inviting input on good practices for consideration for inclusion in the forthcoming study, The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa. The input can be in the form of references, written contributions (with proper citations), contracts or any other sources. All in contributions will be appropriately acknowledged in the final study. To facilitate the process, we have provided below a chapter outline for the study. Please indicate in which chapter your input should be considered for inclusion. Please forward all input and correspondence to: technovation@hks.harvard.edu.
…read more about The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa

Limbe Labs is a group of idealists and technologists united with local partners to contribute to the growing knowledge-based economy in Cameroon and greater Central and West Africa. We’ve established a socially-responsible for-profit consulting and outsourcing firm that provides opportunities, work experience and training for recent graduates and young engineers to start them on a successful career path in IT.
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AfriGadget is a website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. A team of bloggers and readers contribute their pictures, videos and stories from around the continent. The stories of innovation are inspiring. It is a testament to Africans bending the little they have to their will, using creativity to overcome life’s challenges.
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Open Innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at UC Berkeley, in his book Open Innovation: The new imperative for creating and profiting from technology. The concept is related to user innovation, cumulative innovation, Know-How Trading, mass innovation and distributed innovation.

“Open innovation is a paradigm that assumes that firms can and should use external ideas as well as internal ideas, and internal and external paths to market, as the firms look to advance their technology”. The boundaries between a firm and its environment have become more permeable; innovations can easily transfer inward and outward. The central idea behind open innovation is that in a world of widely distributed knowledge, companies cannot afford to rely entirely on their own research, but should instead buy or license processes or inventions (e.g. patents) from other companies. In addition, internal inventions not being used in a firm’s business should be taken outside the company (e.g., through licensing, joint ventures, spin-offs).

Innovation Africa will soon launch a new service, African Innovation Exchange, will act as a platform to present challenges to African innovators.

Root systems are the basis of the second Green Revolution, and the focus on beans and corn that thrive in poor growing conditions will help some of the world’s poorest farmers, according to a Penn State plant scientist.

“Africans missed the Green Revolution of the ’60s because they typically do not eat wheat and rice, which was its focus,” said Jonathan Lynch, professor of plant nutrition.
…read more about Roots key to second Green Revolution

Nitrogen is vital for all plant life, but increasingly the planet is paying a heavy price for the escalating use of nitrogen fertilizer.

Excess nitrogen from fertilizer runoff into rivers and lakes causes algal blooms that create oxygen-depleted dead zones, such as the 6,000 to 7,000 square mile zone in the Gulf of Mexico, and nitrogen in the form of nitrous oxide is a potent greenhouse gas.

But new findings by Stanford researchers that reveal the inner workings of nitrogen-producing bacteria living inside legumes such as soybeans could enable researchers to blunt those negative effects and aid efforts to make agriculture more sustainable.
…read more about Discovery in legumes could reduce fertilizer use, aid environment: Stanford researchers

Ushahidi, which means “testimony” in Swahili, is a website that was initially developed to map reports of violence in Kenya after the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. Ushahidi’s roots are in the collaboration of Kenyan citizen journalists during a time of crisis. The website was used to map incidents of violence and peace efforts throughout the country based on reports submitted via the web and mobile phone. This initial deployment of Ushahidi had 45,000 users in Kenya, and was the catalyst for us realizing there was a need for a platform based on it, which could be use by others around the world.
…read more about Ushahid

JOHANNESBURG, 24 February 2010 (IRIN) – Temperatures seem set to soar to perilously high levels because of climate change. In another 40 years, would maize still be the staple food in Kenya, already hit by five failed rainy seasons? If not, what could people grow and eat? And if you could grow maize, how much water and fertilizer would it need?

If you live in the remote semi-arid Karamoja region of northeastern Uganda – beset by 14 droughts in 25 years – you might also want to know what your options are for continued food security.
…read more about Finding the food crops of the future

The private sector has driven the expansion of information and communications technology in recent years. Figure 1 shows the rapid growth in investment with private participation in African telecommunications from 2000 to 2007. Resource scarce landlocked countries in Sub-Saharan Africa attract the lowest volume of investment. These countries have much lower levels of income, larger rural populations, and lower educational levels than other regions. Oil producer Nigeria has been increasing its dominance, and in 2007 accounted for well over half of total investment in resource rich countries. South Africa’s contribution to the resource scarce coastal total has been falling. Between 2000 and 2003, South Africa accounted for 60 per cent of average investment. From 2004 to 2007 this decreased to 22 per cent. North African countries which have higher levels of income and a smaller rural population, accounted on average for 44 per cent of investment in Africa from 2004 to 2007.

…read more about Technology Infrastructure and Services in Africa

For the first time, crop breeders and agricultural specialists in East Africa will have regionally specific climate data to research and manage crops in an effort to improve food production, according to Michigan State University researchers.

Using a $430,000 Rockefeller Foundation grant, researchers will study the impact of climate change on the drought-stricken area, including Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, said lead researcher Jennifer Olson, associate professor in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.
…read more about MSU researchers study climate change, food production in East Africa

There is good news for coffee lovers and growers worldwide: A predator for the devastating coffee berry borer has just been discovered in Africa. Looking at coffee berries in Western Kenya, Dr. Juliana Jaramillo from the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology in Kenya, Dr. Eric Chapman from the University of Kentucky, and colleagues have identified a previously unknown predatory thrips* – Karnyothrips flavipes – which feeds on the eggs and larvae of the coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei. According to the authors, this discovery could have important implications for the management of the coffee berry borer throughout the world.
…read more about Natural pest control saves coffee berry

Small stipends paid directly to teen girls have had a powerful impact on their school attendance in Malawi.

That’s among the findings from a study of a two-year cash transfer program targeting girls aged 13 to 22 that wrapped up in December 2009.

Stipends ranging from $1-$5 a month for the adolescent girls, in addition to payments to  parents that ranged from $4-$10, reduced drop-out rates by approximately 40 percent.
…read more about Study: In Malawi, Money in Girls’ Hands Boosts School Enrollment

Solar-powered drip irrigation systems significantly enhance household incomes and nutritional intake of villagers in arid sub-Saharan Africa, according to a new Stanford University study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). The two-year study found that solar-powered pumps installed in remote villages in the West African nation of Benin were a cost-effective way of delivering much-needed irrigation water, particularly during the long dry season. The results are published in the Jan. 4, 2010, online edition of PNAS.

…read more about Solar-powered irrigation significantly improves diet and income in rural sub-Saharan Africa

Diligent Tanzania Ltd is active in the production, promotion and usage of vegetable oil, mainly Jatropha oil. We are producers of Jatropha oil and biodiesel for transportation fuel purposes and offer consultancy services for anyone who wants to grow or use Jatropha. Diligent Tanzania ltd. is continuously researching all aspects related to vegetable oil. Our office is located in Arusha, but our activities stretch to a much larger area of Tanzania and Africa. Diligent Tanzania ltd. currently promotes the cultivation of Jatropha Curcas and provides farmers with a guaranteed market for their seeds. The seeds are processed into oil, called biofuel, which can be used as diesel substitute. We are related to the Dutch company, Diligent Energy Systems, (www.diligent.nl).
…read more about Diligent Tanzania

Microsoft Research, TWAS and AAS reward computer scientists showing potential to accelerate economic development in Africa

Nairobi, Kenya. Three African scientists have been awarded the inaugural TWAS-AAS-Microsoft Award for Young Scientists, by TWAS, the academy of sciences for the developing world and the African Academy of Sciences (AAS). The award, funded by Microsoft Research, recognises the outstanding work of African scientists that has – or promises to have – a positive impact in the developing world.

…read more about African computer scientists recognized