He recognized, however, that famine was the symptom of an underlying malaise in food production. And he was aware that in Asia the advent of high yielding cereal varieties combined with fertilizers had subdued a chronic outbreak of famine. Acting swiftly, he contacted Norman Borlaug, the Nobel Peace Price laureate, to find out whether the Green Revolution principles could be applied in Africa.

Dr Borlaug, an agricultural scientist, widely considered as the father of the Green Revolution in Pakistan and India during the 1960s, collected the advice of his agricultural collegues in Africa and elsewhere. Based on these discussions, he concluded that the existing research products and information could greatly expand the African food production, but the improved technologies were not reaching the smallholders who produced most of Africa's food, and the feeble extension systems were failing to link research to farmers.

In 1985, The Nippon Foundation sponsored a workshop in Geneva to assess the possibilities for doubling or tripling the cereal crop yields in Africa. From this meeting, a plan emerged for several projects to diffuse improved agricultural technology to small-scale farmers. Mr Sasakawa agreed to fund the pilot projects and Dr Borlaug to serve as an overall technical leader and to select the principal staff. In 1986, The Sasakawa Africa Association (SAA) was registered as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization in Geneva. The administrative headquarters were located in Tokyo, Japan, and funded by The Nippon Foundation.

SG 2000 (the joint programme of SAA and Global 2000, from the Carter Center) began its activities in 1986 in Ghana and Sudan, then spreading in more than 10 Sub-Saharian countries and developping its partnerships and agricultural programmes.