Agricultural research and extension can yield high returns and can therefore contribute significantly to food security. African governments should therefore increase funding to research and extension in order to strengthen human capacity, research infrastructure, facilities and institutional frameworks. Principal programmatic focus should be the development and scaling up of technologies and innovations, integrated capacity strengthening, knowledge management and gender mainstreaming. The main policy issues that need to be addressed include anchoring agricultural research and extension policies into the national multi-sectoral integrated food security frameworks and strengthening policy and institutional frameworks so as to enhance formal and informal linkages between researchers, extension workers and farmers.