This document discusses the importance of knowledge production and access to literature for African countries to develop knowledge economies and societies. It provides data that shows: 1) Only about 1/3 of African countries have produced significant agricultural research outputs. 2) The impact factors of African agricultural journals are about half that of top international journals in the field. 3) There is a need to improve visibility, usage, and quality of African agricultural research literature to support evidence-based decision making and innovation in the sector.

1. Beyond access: the impact of Africa’s
agriculture research outputs and literature
A keynote address at the
Third IAALD African Chapter Conference
e-Agriculture for improved livelihoods and food security in
Africa
21-23 May, 2012
Johannesburg, South Africa
Andrew M. Kaniki, PhD
Executive Director: Knowledge Fields Development
Research and Innovation Support and Advancement (RISA)
National Research Foundation
Andrew@nrf.ac.za

2. Strategic Context:
Towards the knowledge society/economy
• African Governments have set themselves the
objective of transforming their countries and the
continent into a knowledge society that
competes effectively in a global system
• The agenda… to become a knowledge society is
increasingly driven by Africans. The African
Union and more specifically NEPAD are setting
the agenda (Africa as a knowledge society: a reality
check Int. Info & Lib Review. Britz et. al 2006)
2

3. Knowledge Society Indicators:
Towards the knowledge society/economy
• Qualitative measurement of the use of, and
access to, modern ICTs;
• The number of scientists in a country;
• The amount spent on R&D as a percentage
of the gross domestic product (GDP)
– Executive Council 8th Ordinary Session of AU 16-21 Jan, 2006, 1% of
GDP spend;
– Maputo declaration 2003 directed AU member countries national 3
agricultural investment to at least 10%

4. Knowledge Society Indicators:
Towards the knowledge society/economy
• The ability to produce and export high
technology;
• The number of patents filed in a country;
and
• The number [and impact] of articles
published in highly ranked [impact]
scholarly journals. 4

5. Why the knowledge economy?
Sustainable wealth
Source: DA King, Nature 430 (2004) 311 (15 July 2004)

6. Why the Knowledge Economy
More than 50% of new wealth creation in the world’s
largest economies is ascribed to knowledge based
industries, where the major proportion of the
workforce is employed in knowledge-based jobs and
the major proportion of firms that innovate use
technology to do so. The DST aims to lead a
programme of interventions over the next ten years to
drive the transformation of the South African
economy to a knowledge economy.
Innovation towards a knowledge economy: The ten year plan for South
Africa (2008-2018) pp. 4-5

7. Drivers of Economic
Competitiveness
• Drivers of competitiveness:
– Investing in human beings is the best way to enhance
productive capacities – profits and efficiencies
(Riane Esler 2007 – The real wealth of nations)
• Economic studies indicate that even before the IT
revolution as much as 85% of measured US growth per
capita was due to technological change (US National
Academy of Science)
1. Human Capital
2. Technological change (Knowledge production, Innovation:
US study on Productivity Growth)

8. Impact of Africa’s agriculture research
outputs and literature - Indicators
• Essential Science Indicators & Journal
Citation Index (Thomson Reuters: Journal Citation
Report)
• Agricultural Science and Technology
Indicators (ASTI) (managed by the International
Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) of the
Consultative Group on International Agriculture
Research (CGIAR) – http://www.asti.cgiar.org)
8

9. Thomas Reuters examples of
productivity and impact measures
• Journal Impact Factor: Average number of
times articles from a jnal published in past
2 yrs have been cited
• Impact Factor of 1.0: on average articles
published one or two years ago have been
cited at least once
• 5 year impact factor: average number of
times articles from a journal published in
past 5 yrs
9

10. Big 8 Share of Agric R&D spending and
staff in 2008
Country % Share Spending %Share of
Staff
Nigeria 23.2 17.0
South Africa 15.6 6.5
Kenya 9.8 8.4
Ghana 5.5 4.4
Uganda 5.0 2.2
Tanzania 4.4 5.6
Ethiopia 3.9 10.9
Sudan 3.0 8.4
Total 70.4 63.7 10

11. 11 Yr Country Rankings in Ag Science
According to Number of Citations per paper
Ranking(out- Country 98 Papers Citations Citations/
puts ranking Paper
1 (36 Scotland 1 794 24 007 13.38
2 (29) Finland 2 087 25 822 12.37
6 (12) England 8 297 95 605 11.52
14 (1) USA 46 251 460 698 9.96
26 (73) Zimbabwe 258 2 128 8.25
33 (62) Morocco 357 2 681 7.51
38 (88) Cote d’IVoire 130 850 6.54
41 (37) S Africa 1 545 9 526 6.17
11
44 (80) Senegal 171 1 050 6.14

12. 11 Yr Country Rankings in Ag Science
According to Number of Citations per paper
Ranking(out- Country 98 Papers Citations Citations/
puts ranking Paper
46 (46) Kenya 865 5 034 5.38
55 (81) Burkina Faso 170 932 5.48
60 (72) Tanzania 268 1 344 5.01
63 (74) Algeria 251 1 230 4.9
64 (76) Uganda 234 1 142 4.88
69 (87) Malawi 133 616 4.63
70 (48) Tunisia 767 3 415 4.45
71 (90) Mali 129 570 4.42
12
73 (41) Egypt 1 299 5 393 4.15

13. 11 Yr Country Rankings in Ag Science
According to Number of Citations per paper
Ranking(out- Country 98 Papers Citations Citations/
puts ranking Paper
76 (66) Cameroon 324 1 329 4.1
78 (60) Ghana 381 1 547 4.06
79 (59) Ethiopia 392 1 564 3.99
81 (94) Botswana 92 365 3.97
83 (79) Sudan 178 698 3.92
84 (797) Benin 226 879 3.89
86 (93) Niger 107 392 3.66
94 (34) Nigeria 1 932 5 925 3.07
13

14. Country Journal Title Impact 5yr IF
Factor (IF)
Egypt Int. Jnal Photoenergy 1.345 1.363
Ethiopia Bulletin of the chemical Society 0.277 0.298
Kenya African Jnal of biotechnology 0.573 0.794
Libya Libya Jnal of Medicine 0.169 No
data
Nigeria African Jnal of Agric Research 0.263 0.203
South Africa SA Jnal of Animal Sciences 0.416 0.717
SA Jnal Botany 1.106 1.144
14

15. What can we say about this?
• A key input for development and innovation is
research and literature;
• Research output and impactful literature;
• Access to literature cannot be over-
emphasised and of course ICT provide great
opportunity for access;
• Only about 1/3 of African countries have
produced agriculture research
• Impact factor of top journals ½ that of the top
15
journals in agriculture.

16. In Conclusion
What does this mean/shoul we be doing?
• Improve visibility and use of African Agric literature
(SciELO –SA Scientific Electronic Library Online);
• Keep track on the performance of these literature and
provide feed back to decision makers and
researchers;
• Facilitate the improvement of quality of agric research
literature
• As African countries work towards investing 1% of
GDP into R&D, what % goes into Agricultural R&D,
what’s the return on investment?
16

17. Enkosi, Thank you, Asante, Re a leboga, Siyabonga, Dankie,
Merci, Zikomo

18. Andrew@nrf.ac.za