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The basic reasons for the present unsatisfactory structure of agricultural R & D in Southern Africa and particularly in South Africa, are the focus of R & D on the commercial sector of agriculture, at the expense of the non-commercial sector, top-down policy decision-making and the institutional separation of research and extension. This has led to the generation of inappropriate technology and ineffective technology transfer particularly for rural or communal farmers. The solution to these problems is a restructuring of agricultural R & D in which R & D for commercial agriculture is privatised enabling all government resources for agricultural R & D to be devoted to the non-commercial sector, a reversal of top-down decision-making empowering stakeholders to take their own decisions, and by making agricultural development, including agricultural R & D, an integral part of rural development structures and decision-making.