Guide to Technology Transfer in East, Central and Southern Africa

Most developing countries still depend heavily on imported agricultural equipment from the developed world, and many of these imports are high cost, inappropriate to countries’ needs, difficult to maintain in remote areas and could to a large extent be replaced by locally manufactured alternatives. The barriers to communication and technology transfer are still very strong. Even when countries know the equipment they want, and have found where it is made within the region, logistical obstacles, customs barriers and financial restrictions often prevent them from obtaining it. It is frequently easier to purchase from established suppliers through established trade routes in Europe, than from a manufacturer just over the border in a neighbouring territory.
This Guide has been prepared to break down the barriers between communication and technology transfer in agricultural equipment. The authors of this guide hope that it will prove useful both to manufacturers and to users of agricultural equipment in East, Central and Southern Africa.
This Guide has been prepared to break down the barriers between communication and technology transfer in agricultural equipment. The authors of this guide hope that it will prove useful both to manufacturers and to users of agricultural equipment in East, Central and Southern Africa.
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Background to the Guide
The origin of this Guide to Technology Transfer can be traced to the Rural Technology Meeting organized by the Commonwealth Secretariat with the Government of Tanzania in Arusha, Tanzania in August 1977. At that meeting more than 100 items of locally made equipment from all countries of East, Central and Southern Africa, as well as some from West Africa, India and Papua New Guinea, were brought together and tested in the field by participants drawn from all the countries of Commonwealth Africa. The participants also had the opportunity to compare experiences of tackling the technical, economic and administrative problems of getting appropriate equipment from the drawing board to the factory bench, and thence out to the users.
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