Too often breakthroughs in the research laboratory have not led to improved livelihoods for African farmers. We funded research to boost yields and combat threats to key crops, focusing on ensuring the results actually reached and benefitted smallholders.
Outside of government, Gatsby is the largest funder of plant science research in the UK. The “Green Revolution” in Asia showed the possible impact of transferring the results of such research to the developing world, and Africa’s economic development will greatly depend on its ability to apply such research to grow crops with higher yields and greater resistance to disease.
Gatsby’s support to African agriculture began in 1985 with an innovative project distributing improved varieties of cassava to smallholders in Cameroon. Ensuring the results of agricultural research reach and benefit smallholders became the core focus of Gatsby support. Programmes distributed improved, higher-yielding and disease-resistant varieties of crops such as bananas and beans, frequently involving farmers in varietal selection before scaling-up multiplication efforts to ensure local needs were met.
Gatsby also supported work higher up the research chain, helping to form international partnerships between African and European organisations. Notable achievements of the resulting collaborative research include the development of a natural “push-pull” cropping system that protects maize from the twin threats of pests and weeds, and the production of transgenic bananas with probable resistance to bacterial wilt disease.
In 2005 Gatsby established the Kilimo Trust as an independent grant-maker funding and supporting agricultural projects across East Africa. Headquartered in Kampala, Uganda, with a team of East African staff and Trustees, Kilimo inherited much of Gatsby’s agricultural portfolio, successfully managing programmes to scale while developing its own initiatives.
Featured Projects
We have funded efforts to bring the benefits of clonal forest technology to smallholders in East Africa by developing nurseries with technical expertise which have supplied over 20 million fast-growing varieties of drought-tolerant trees to date.
We funded the research partnership which developed this innovative and natural science-based technology which protects maize from attacks by the parasitic weed Striga and stemborer moths that devastate the crops of smallholder farmers across Africa.
We funded projects which revitalised cassava production in East Africa after the outbreak of a new variant of cassava mosaic disease by forming a network dedicated to accelerating the development and dissemination of disease-resistant varieties.
We funded a variety of projects addressing declining banana yields in Africa through research into diseases; the multiplication and distribution of improved varieties; farmer training; and the development of transgenic plants with disease-resistance.
We funded projects boosting yields and incomes in West Africa through improved farming systems that use livestock and the strip-cropping of cowpea and sorghum to prevent the nutrient losses caused by the region’s traditional farming systems.
See more agricultural research projects