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More than four decades of research and development work in Africa have not resulted in the 3--5% annual increase in agricultural growth necessary for most African countries to ensure sustainability of agriculture and the promise of food security in the next decade. The present study evaluates the quality of the soil resource base of Africa and also the risks to sustainable agriculture and soil productivity on a continent-wide basis. Fifty-five percent of the land in Africa is unsuitable for any kind of agriculture except nomadic grazing. These are largely the deserts, which includes salt flats, dune and rock lands, and the steep to very steep lands. Though these lands have constraints to sustainability, about 30% of the population or about 250 million people are living, or are dependent on these land resources. About 16% of the land has soils of high quality and about 13% has soils of medium quality. This 9 million km2 of land in Africa currently supports about 400 million or about 45% of the people. There are compelling reasons for African nations to return to fundamentals in terms of research and developmental initiatives. Those countries with subsistence agriculture have had minimal inputs in acquiring and managing information about their resource conditions. The green revolution succeeded in Asia in those countries where there was a serious effort to match technology with resource conditions and where. advances in development and use of high-yielding cultivars was accompanied by appropriate soil, water, and nutrient management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]