Positioning tertiary agricultural education within a changing policy and institutional context.

Abstract This chapter presents an historical perspective on institutional developments in support of the agricultural sector, highlighting the principal drivers of institutional change. Agriculture's institutional ecosystem has varied across time and throughout Africa, as well as in relation to its colonial origins. The discussion principally focuses on the main trends, occasionally noting regional differences. The timeline is divided into three periods. Following an overview of the structure of the institutional ecosystem, Section 3.3 describes the post-independence period to the mid-1980s and Section 3.4 analyzes the succeeding period to approximately 2005, which was dominated by structural adjustment and market liberalization programmes. Section 3.5 reviews the rapid changes which occurred after 2005, framed in terms of the institutional linkages necessary to achieve the subsidiary functions outlined above most effectively and, hence, the role of tertiary agricultural education (TAE) in an evolving agricultural innovation system. The implications for TAE are highlighted throughout the chapter.