Hartmut Brandt began his professional education with three years of farming practice (1960-62) and continued with eight years of academic study and research in agricultural sciences and economics at Kiel University, Technical University of Berlin and Makerere University College, Kampala. Thereafter, followed thirty-two years of applied research, consulting work and postgraduate training based at the German Development Institute (GDI). Dr Brandt retired in 2002 but continues his consultative activities. Uwe Otzen is senior research fellow at the German Development Institute (GDI). He studied international agricultural science at the Technical University of Berlin, where he obtained his PhD in 1973. He worked four years in Malawi as agricultural consultant and project manager for a regional development project of the GTZ, the German Agency for Technical Cooperation, before he joined the German Development Institute in 1977, where he worked as research fellow in the Africa Department. Between 1982 and 1986 he spent four years in Zimbabwe as agricultural and rural development advisor to the Ministry of Lands, Resettlement and Rural Development in Harare.