§ Mr. Allen McKayasked the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what the Government are doing to increase aid to research in African countries in order to increase the yield of traditional African crops.
§ Mr. RaisonEffective research is vital to increasing crop yields and we are seeking to improve our aid in this sector in several ways. We have already restructured the Tropical Development and Research Institute so that it can be more responsive to ODA's priority needs. We intend to maintain and if possible increase the funds allocated for agricultural research contracts. We have recently increased the contributions we make to the International Agricultural Research Centres working in Africa, particularly the International Centre for Research in the Semi-arid Tropics, which works mainly on sorghum and millets, two important traditional African crops. We also attach priority to the provision of manpower assistance and training in this field and are looking for ways of encouraging requests from African countries.