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An Overview

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An African Green Revolution

Abstract

On average, agriculture accounts for 70% of full-time employment in Africa, 33% of national income, and 40% of total export earnings, and its importance is even greater in the poorest countries. Yet its performance in recent decades has been one of the worst in the world. Africa has some of the lowest levels of land and labor productivity and these have barely changed in 30 years. And, while it might appear obvious that accelerating agricultural growth should figure prominently in any strategy to reverse Africa’s decline, agriculture virtually fell off the development agenda for Africa until recently. Now that agriculture is back in the spotlight, important differences about the nature of the effective agricultural development strategy have emerged around four key issues; whether to prioritize small or large farms; whether to focus on food staples or high value products; whether to promote technologies and farming practices that require fertilizers and modern seeds; and the degree to which governments should intervene in markets. By reviewing the existing studies in these areas, this chapter sets the stage for detailed empirical studies conducted in subsequent chapters.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Small farms today are only about half as big as they were at the time of Asia’s green revolution, so focusing on middle sized farms today would be equivalent to the small farm focus of the Green Revolution.

  2. 2.

    Ethiopia, Ghana, Uganda and Zambia.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies, 7-22-1 Roppongi, Minato-ku, Tokyo, 106-8677, Japan

    Keijiro Otsuka

  2. Development Research Group, World Bank, 1818 H Street NW, Washington, DC, 20433, USA

    Donald F. Larson

  3. Imperial College, London, UK

    Peter B. R. Hazell

  4. Centre for Development, Environment and Policy, School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, Fallowfield, Westwell, Ashford, Kent, TN25 4LQ, UK

    Peter B. R. Hazell

Authors
  1. Keijiro Otsuka
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  2. Donald F. Larson
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  3. Peter B. R. Hazell
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Donald F. Larson .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. National Graduate Institute for Policy S, Roppongi 7-22-1, Minato, 106-8677, Tokyo, Japan

    Keijiro Otsuka

  2. , Research Group, World Bank, H Street, NW 1818, Washington, 20433, District of Columbia, USA

    Donald F. Larson

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Otsuka, K., Larson, D.F., Hazell, P.B.R. (2013). An Overview. In: Otsuka, K., Larson, D. (eds) An African Green Revolution. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5760-8_1

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