Abstract
Globalisation in research and development is progressing rapidly. Particularly through the governments of UK, USA and Australia and private foundations such as Bill & Melinda Gates, substantial investments are being made for agricultural research in Africa through collaborative projects. Strategies must be in place to get the most benefit from these international investments in Africa. The aims of this presentation are to discuss: a) the role of international research collaborations for enhancing agricultural productivity, b) strategies for establishing effective global collaborations between African and non - African scientists. Short term and long term strategies must be in place to increase in agricultural productivity. Short term strategy may involve in training farmers through extension services towards implementing new farming systems. Training farmers with new simple methods should provide an immediate increase in productivity. Human resource and infrastructure capacity building may be viewed as a long term strategy. Africa and African people can only be lifted up with the greater involvement of African scientists and policy makers with enhanced collaborations with international partners from developed nations. Although international funds present great opportunities for the agricultural research in the way to increasing agricultural productivity in Africa, due to the lack of know - how and practical information, fewer African scientists are able to undertake leadership roles in internationally collaborative projects. Therefore it is important that African scientists be trained, for example, in area of grant writing for enabling them to ask critical questions to create best outputs for the African Farmers.