Key Trends from the 2004 country brief

• The total number of agricultural researchers in Burkina Faso has doubled since the early 1990s, but agricultural R&D expenditure has been erratic.
• Burkina Faso’s main agricultural R&D agency is the Environment and Agricultural Research Institute (INERA), accounting for roughly 60 percent of the country’s agricultural researchers and 60 percent of its agricultural R&D expenditure in 2001.
• In addition to the important financial support of bilateral donors, since 1989 INERA has depended heavily upon two consecutive projects that were largely funded by World Bank loans.
• The education levels of Burkinabe researchers have improved greatly since the early 1990s. As a result, half of the country’s agricultural researchers held PhD degrees in 2001—one of the highest levels in Africa.

Burkina Faso