Tailoring Tropical African Agriculture Towards The Millennium Development Goals: A Plant Breeder's Perspective [Inaugural Lecture Series]

Agriculture is the use of the natural resource base for the increased improvement and production of crops livestock, fish and trees (Anderson, 1991; Ene-Obong,2003). Its origin is pinpointed over 1000 years ago, all the north end of the Dead sea, by a team oiarcheologists at Yale University, U.S.A (Anderson,1991). From the early period of grain gathering, through transition into planting and cultivation of crops, up till today, five distinct technological advances have impacted on agriculture; viz: (I) domestication of plants and animals, (ii) mechanization, (iii) Hybridization and genetics, (iv) use of chemicals (pesticides and fertilizers), and (v) Agricultural biotechnology (Calder, 1 999).