Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity
Agribusiness for Africa's Prosperity

Author: United Nations Industrial Development Organization

Publisher: UN

Published: 2011

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9789211064469

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In recent years, a renewed focus on agriculture has been evident in policy and development agendas for the African continent, yet little knowledge has been generated on the interlinkages of production, agroindustry and markets, as well as the potentials and challenges for developing these. This publication analyzes the challenges, the potential and opportunities of African agribusiness in the current period of dramatic changes in global agro-industrial markets, and builds a case for agribusiness development as a path to Africa's prosperity. Written by international experts, from agribusiness practitioners, to academic experts and UN technical agencies, this volume fills what the United Nations Industrial Development Organization perceived as a significant gap in knowledge concerning these issues.

Successes in African Agriculture
Successes in African Agriculture

Author: Haggblade, Steven

Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst

Published: 2010-01-01

Total Pages: 464

ISBN-13: 0801895030

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Sub—Saharan Africa is one of the poorest regions of the world. Because most Africans work in agriculture, escaping such dire poverty depends on increased agricultural productivity to raise rural incomes, lower food prices, and stimulate growth in other economic sectors. Per capita agricultural production in sub—Saharan Africa has fallen, however, for much of the past half—century. Successes in African Agriculture investigates how to reverse this decline. Instead of cataloging failures, as many past studies have done, this book identifies episodes of successful agricultural growth in Africa and identifies processes, practices, and policies for accelerated growth in the future. The individual studies follow developments in, among other areas, the farming of maize in East and Southern Africa, cassava across the middle belt of Africa, cotton in West Africa, horticulture in Kenya, and dairying in East Africa. Drawing on these case studies and on consultations with agricultural specialists and politicians from across sub—Saharan Africa -- undertaken in collaboration with the African Union's New Partnership for Africa's Development -- the contributors identify two key determinants of positive agricultural performance: agricultural research to provide more productive and sustainable technologies to farmers and a policy framework that fosters market incentives for increasing production. The contributors discuss how the public and private sectors can best coordinate the convergence of both factors. Given current concerns about global food security, this book provides timely and important resources to policymakers and development specialists concerned with reversing the negative trends in food insecurity and poverty in Africa.

Agribusiness and Innovation Systems in Africa
Agribusiness and Innovation Systems in Africa

Author: Kurt Larsen

Publisher: World Bank Publications

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 242

ISBN-13: 0821379453

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book examines how agricultural innovation arises in four African countries ? Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda ? through the lens of agribusiness, public policies, and specific value chains for food staples, high value products, and livestock.

Agribusiness for Economic Growth in Africa
Agribusiness for Economic Growth in Africa

Author: Margaret Atosina Akuriba

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-10-25

Total Pages: 171

ISBN-13: 3030887596

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides exclusive information on how agribusinesses could act as the springboard for inclusive economic growth critical for socioeconomic transformation of Africa. It is a must read for academics, practitioners, policymakers, students, and all those interested in the application of practical models capable of tackling the endemic poverty situation in Africa using agribusiness as the launchpad. The book emphasizes the urgent need for robust and inward-looking enabling policy frameworks to help remove existing constraints on agro-industrialization and encourage investments. Thus, the book sets the agenda for the right combination of agricultural, industrial, and trade policies critical in promoting sustainable agricultural commodity value chains and food systems for inclusive growth and poverty reduction. Written in a simple, plain, and accessible language devoid of technical jargons, the book makes an interesting read for even the non-expert and is a valuable reference material for academic and practical training of students and practitioners.

African Economic Development
African Economic Development

Author: Christopher Cramer

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 334

ISBN-13: 0198832338

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

"This book challenges conventional wisdoms about economic performance and possible policies for economic development in African countries. Its starting point is the striking variation in African economic performance. Unevenness and inequalities form a central fact of African economic experiences. The authors highlight not only differences between countries, but also variations within countries, differences often organized around distinctions of gender, class, and ethnic identity. For example, neo-natal mortality and school dropout have been reduced, particularly for some classes of women in some areas of Africa. Horticultural and agribusiness exports have grown far more rapidly in some countries than in others. These variations (and many others) point to opportunities for changing performance, reducing inequalities, learning from other policy experiences, and escaping the ties of structure, and the legacies of a colonial past. The book rejects teleological illusions and Eurocentric prejudice, but it does pay close attention to the results of policy in more industrialized parts of the world. Seeing the contradictions of capitalism for what they are - fundamental and enduring - may help policy officials protect themselves against the misleading idea that development can be expected to be a smooth, linear process, or that it would be were certain impediments suddenly removed. The authors criticize a wide range of orthodox and heterodox economists, especially for their cavalier attitude to evidence. Drawing on their own decades of research and policy experience, they combine careful use of available evidence from a range of African countries with political economy insights (mainly derived from Kalecki, Kaldor and Hischman) to make the policy case for specific types of public sector investment"--

African Farmers, Value Chains and Agricultural Development
African Farmers, Value Chains and Agricultural Development

Author: Alan de Brauw

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-11-02

Total Pages: 223

ISBN-13: 303088693X

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book provides a thorough introduction to and examination of agricultural value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. First, the authors introduce the economic theory of agri-food value chains and value chain governance, focusing on domestic and regional trade in (and consumption of) food crops in a low-income country context. In addition to mainstream and heterodox thinking about value chain development, the book pays attention to political economy considerations. The book also reviews the empirical evidence on value chain development and performance in Africa. It adopts multiple lenses to examine agricultural value chains, zooming out from the micro level (e.g., relational contracting in a context of market imperfections) to the meso level (e.g., distributional implications of various value chain interventions, inclusion of specific social groups) and the macro level (underlying income, population and urbanization trends, volumes and prices, etc.).Furthermore, this book places value chain development in the context of a process the authors refer to as structural transformation 2.0, which refers to a process where production factors (labor, land and capital) move from low-productivity agriculture to high-productivity agriculture. Finally, throughout the book the authors interpret the evidence in light of three important debates: (i) how competitive are rural factor and product markets, and what does this imply for distribution and innovation? (ii) what role do foreign investment and factor proportions play in the development of agri-food value chains in Africa? (iii) what complementary government policies can help facilitate a process of agricultural value chain transformation, towards high-productive activities and enhancing the capacity of value chains to generate employment opportunities and food security for a growing population.

Africa's Agricultural Renaissance
Africa's Agricultural Renaissance

Author: Ayodele Odusola

Publisher: Springer Nature

Published: 2021-06-26

Total Pages: 508

ISBN-13: 3030657485

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book addresses the paradox between preponderance of hunger in a continent that is well endowed with fertile agricultural land, plenty of fresh water and a vibrant labor force. As some statistics show, close to 60% of arable land in the world is located in Africa which also has several rivers flowing in all seasons and plenty of underground water. The bulk of its labor force thrives on agriculture, yet the continent’s largest import item is food. 23 of 36 the most malnourished countries also belong in Africa. This has caused significant needless human suffering. This book goes beyond providing the traditional framework of supplying policy recommendations to delivering an applied, innovative framework upon which policymakers, the private sector and international institutions can take clear and deliberate action to stimulate Africa's agricultural sector, thus responding to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

The New Harvest
The New Harvest

Author: Calestous Juma

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 355

ISBN-13: 0190237236

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and can help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by advancing scientific and technological research, investing in infrastructure, fostering higher technical training, and creating regional markets.

Agricultural Transformation Centres in Africa - Practical guidance to promote inclusive agro-industrial development
Agricultural Transformation Centres in Africa - Practical guidance to promote inclusive agro-industrial development

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations

Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.

Published: 2019-03-14

Total Pages: 200

ISBN-13: 9251312591

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Over the next ten years, the African rural space will be the theatre of profound changes as the activities envisaged for agricultural transformation are drastically scaled up. Increased food demand and changing consumption habits driven by demographic factors, such as population growth and urbanization, are already leading to a rapid increase of net food imports, opening a huge opportunity for the agribusiness sector of many African countries. Against this backdrop and in line with its mission to spur sustainable economic development and social progress, the African Development Bank (AfDB) in 2016 launched Feed Africa, a strategy that is intended to contribute substantially to the transformation of African agriculture by 2025, and to reverse Africa's dependence on imported foods. As part of this strategy, AfDB is promoting the concept of staple crops processing zones (SCPZs), which are agrobased spatial development initiatives, designed to concentrate agro-processing activities within areas of high agricultural potential to boost productivity and integrate the production, processing and marketing of selected commodities. As essential components, SCPZs include an agro-processing hub, a number of agricultural transformation centres (ATCs) and agricultural production areas. The ATCs are designed to link smallholder farmers to the agro-processing hub and are strategically located in high production areas, with the aim of serving as aggregation points to accumulate products from the community to supply the hub for further value addition, or to send them to centres of great demand for distribution and retail to consumers. This study has attempted to assess the feasibility and applicability of the ATC concept to selected regions in Zambia, Côte d'Ivoire and the United Republic of Tanzania. Findings from the field have demonstrated the potential of ATCs to address community needs and constraints for a range of selected value chains, and have helped to identify different ATC models that could work in each specific context.

Productivity Growth in Agriculture
Productivity Growth in Agriculture

Author: Keith Owen Fuglie

Publisher: CABI

Published: 2012

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 1845939212

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This volume is written primarily for agricultural economists doing research on productivity. It includes discussions of the theoretical underpinnings of productivity measurement as well as the many practical considerations that go into translating this theory into actual measures of aggregated outputs and inputs. The unifying concept of agricultural productivity used across the chapters of this volume is aggregate total factor productivity (TFP) of the sector. The volume also contains detailed analysis of the underlying causes of agricultural productivity growth. Part I (chapters 2-6) examines agricultural productivity in high-income and transition countries. Part II (chapters 7-11) examines agricultural productivity growth and its driving forces in five important agricultural producers in Asia and Latin America. Part III (chapters 12-14) focuses on measuring and identifying constraints to agricultural productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa. Part IV (chapters 15-16) gives a global perspective on agricultural productivity.