The workshop brought together a group of strategic thinkers and knowledgeable practitioners, from different points in the research and development continuum and from different stakeholder groups, to explore the extent to which the poor can benefit from dynamic markets for high value agricultural products (HVAP).

Food insecurity, poverty and natural resources degradation are three scourges that continue to
plague developing countries, and which often seem intractable. The global community
continues, however, to confront these problems, monitor progress made and set targets that
need to be achieved in order to bring them under control. These negative trends have to be reversed, and we believe that scientific research in
congruence with traditional knowledge can contribute significantly to their reversal.

The objectives of the meeting on 31 January 2003 were outlined as:
o Discussing the scope, key questions and value of the proposed assessment.
o Focusing on questions that decision makers needed answered in order to formulate policies that result in fewer hungry and poor people, particularly with reference to East and Central Africa
o Identifying contextual issues.

Contains four major challenges to the agricultural sector and Technology Development and Transfer (TDT) systems in the eastern and central African sub-region in the next 2-3 decades

The ASARECA competitive grant program has been established to stimulate market oriented agricultural production in the region. As part of this effort ASARECA will promote agricultural technology transfer through collaboration between research and partner organizations in Eastern and Central Africa. ASARECA expects to reach this goal by:
¿ Providing competitive grants to researchers to work together with partner institutions and beneficiaries dedicated to technology transfer that shows promise for replicability and adoption;