Calestous Juma’s most recent book The New Harvest: Agricultural Innovation in Africa is now available for free from the Kennedy School of Government website. Here is an overview of the book:
African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa faces three major opportunities that can transform its agriculture into a force for economic growth: advances in science and technology; the creation of regional markets; and the emergence of a new crop of entrepreneurial leaders dedicated to the continent’s economic improvement.
Filled with case studies from within Africa and success stories from developing nations around the world, The New Harvest outlines the policies and institutional changes necessary to promote agricultural innovation across the African continent. Incorporating research from academia, government, civil society, and private industry, the book suggests multiple ways that individual African countries can work together at the regional level to develop local knowledge and resources, harness technological innovation, encourage entrepreneurship, increase agricultural output, create markets, and improve infrastructure.
If you are like me and prefer to have the entire book in a single .pdf file, scroll down on the page for a link to the complete text of the book.
Calestous is also a prolific tweeter. You can follow him on Twitter by clicking here.
Spring Break Classic Posts: Why “Gas Strikes” Make Absolutely No Sense
(It’s Spring Break here this week, so I am taking the week off from blogging to work to revise a few articles and begin working on new research projects. As a result, I am re-posting old posts that some new readers might have missed but which were very popular the first time I posted them. The following was initially posted on March 9, 2011.)
I just saw this on Facebook:
“OKAY! WE HAVE HAD ENOUGH!!! Gas Strike March 10th! This worked once before…let’s try it again. On March 10 if everyone does not buy gas for one day, it will hurt the oil companies. It’s time we stood up to them. We CAN have a voice…REMEMBER “MARCH” 10th DO NOT BUY GAS! Please repost this to as many people as you can…it is urgent that this spreads like wildfire!
PS: Try not to fill up the day before or after so that this day will have an impact on the companies
Thanks”
Annoying statements in ALL CAPS and questionable punctuation (or lack thereof) aside, I just wanted to state for the record that this is a really, really stupid idea.