Abstract only

Agriculture accounts for 17% of Sub-Saharan Africa's (SSA) gross domestic product (GDP), employs 67% of the total labor force and is the main source of livelihood for the region's poor. Therefore, agriculture remains important in rural SSA and indicators of rural well-being are closely related with agricultural performance. However, the Green Revolution that swept through Asia over the past 30 years failed in Africa. SSA's agricultural performance during the 1967-97 period was the worst in the developing world. Low productivity has seriously eroded the competitiveness of African agriculture in the world market. For example, Africa's share of total world agricultural trade fell from 8 percent in 1965 to 3 percent in 1996. The question asked by many, including policy makers, researchers, and development agencies, is why has agriculture in SSA performed so poorly over the past three decades while it has improved significantly in Asia, lifting many millions of people out of poverty? In this paper, we argue that the root causes of the poor agricultural performance in SSA rests mainly with poor development strategies-and policy choices. Although adverse resource endowments have also played a role, the overall unwillingness of many leaders to recognize the importance of agriculture to overall economic growth has been a major contributing factor. For many decades, policies continued to heavily tax agriculture through over-valued exchange rates and price- depressing interventions in food markets. Despite the very high tax levels, there has been very little investment of the surplus in rural public services and infrastructure. Subsidies for fertilizer and credit usually benefited larger, export-oriented farmers who are capable of exercising political power. Inefficient input markets and weak property rights have been major limiting factors for long-term entrepreneurial planning by undermining both the will and ability of farmers to invest. Unfortunately, poor domestic policies were reinforced by protectionist policies of the OECD countries. In addition to poor policies, conflict has also inhibited growth. Many countries, and often entire regions, are ravaged by wars. Lack of vision or effective governance by African leaders contributed to the deleterious situation. Consequently, rural incomes per capita have declined with negative consequences on poverty, food consumption and asset development. The outlook for the future is not bright; although total consumption of food will double by 2020, per capita consumption will only increase marginally. As with Asia, aggressive public investments in education, research and infrastructure (e.g. roads, irrigation) will be needed to sustain growth. In addition, policies must also reach out directly to the poor, particularly through investments in their human capital and health. Agricultural transformation in SSA will occur only if the countries in the region follow stable macroeconomic policies (market-friendly and open trade policies).

English

0310|R01CIMPU|AGRIS 0301|AL-Economics Program

Juan Carlos Mendieta

CIMMYT Publications Collection