Parallel to the preceding chapter, we synthesize the results of Chapters 6-17 here. The focus is on outcomes and impacts. Outcomes centre on varietal adoption and turnover; impacts refer to changes in on-farm productivity, poverty and food security. Hypotheses from Chapter 3 are revisited at the end of each thematic section. Varietal Adoption By crop The area-weighted grand mean adoption level of improved varieties in Sub-Sharan Africa (SSA) across the 20 crops in the project is 35% (Table 19.1). Two-thirds of the crop entries in Table 19.1 fall below the mean estimate. Starting at the bottom of the table, the limited uptake for improved field pea, which is produced primarily in Ethiopia, is not surprising. Internationally and nationally, field pea is arguably the crop species in Table 19.1 that has had the smallest amount of resources allocated to its improvement. In contrast, both chickpea and lentil have benefited from international agricultural research in the CGIAR (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research) since the earlyto-mid-1970s. Although progress has been made, adoption of improved cultivars of both crops is concentrated in small pockets of production regions in Ethiopia where extension programmes have been active (Yigezu et al., 2012a). This apparent location specificity is typical of pulse crops, but it is surprising in light of improved lentil varieties that have reportedly significantly heavier yields than their local counterparts. Adoption levels of faba bean and chickpea are buoyed by a reportedly higher penetration of improved varieties in the Sudan. Indeed, chickpea in the Sudan is the only crop-by-country observation to have been at full adoption level in 2010, albeit on a very small area of 21,000 ha

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