The Sub-Saharan African Challenge Programme (SSA-CP)

The Sub-Saharan African Challenge Programme (SSA CP) is a continental initiative, led by Forum on Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA), which started in 2004 with the aim of finding a solution to the observed low contribution of the agricultural sector to national economic and social growth. At that time it was established that the agricultural sector was faced with a range of constraints which led to the under-performance of the sector. One of these constraints was the vertical nature of how agricultural research was organised. This led to the proposal for a new approach to agricultural research, known as Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D) as an alternative to the linear model, commonly referred to as the Agricultural Research and Development (ARD) approach.