The use of improved seeds and fertilizer contributed to large productiviTY gains in many parts of the developing world over the last 50 years. And yet this green revolution largely bypassed the African continent, which, over the 1960 to 2000 period, registered the lowest yield increases of all world regions (Evenson and Gollin 2003). According to Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) statistics, African farmers in 2009 used on average only 13 kilograms of fertilizer per hectare, compared with an average of 94 kilograms per hectare in other developing countries.
