Reforming Agricultural Markets in Africa - Softcover

Kherallah, Mylène

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0801871980 ISBN 13: 9780801871986

Publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute, 2002

Synopsis

The long-term reduction of hunger and poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa remains one of the great challenges for the international development community. Eliminating hunger and promoting widespread growth in the region inevitably involves agriculture, given its central role in the region's economies. Over the past 20 years, most African governments have carried out reforms to deregulate agricultural markets and reduce the role of state enterprises. How much has the state actually withdrawn from agricultural markets? Have well-functioning private markets emerged? How successful were these reforms in boosting agricultural production, economic growth, and the incomes of the rural poor? What lessons can we learn from the reform process?

The authors of this book address these questions through an analysis based on an extensive review of experiences with reform, focusing on three major agricultural markets: fertilizer, food crops, and export crops. They examine the historical rationales for intervention, the factors contributing to reform, the process of implementation, and the impact of the reforms on farmers and consumers in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The authors find that reforms have had many favorable results, but that the impact has been muted by partial implementation and structural constraints. They propose a new agenda for promoting the development of agricultural markets in Sub-Saharan Africa, identifying areas where governments can play a supportive role. They argue that appropriate agricultural marketing policies and investments can improve livelihoods and the economic health of the region.

About this title

About the Author:

Mylène Kherallah is the regional economist for the Near East and North Africa at the International Fund for Agricultural Development. Christopher Delgado is a senior research fellow and Eleni Gabre-Madhin and Nicholas Minot are research fellows at the International Food Policy Research Institute. Michael Johnson is an American Association for the Advancement of Science fellow at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Review:

A timely and welcome addition to the field.

(Aart van de Laar Development and Change)

If you were allowed to recommend one and only one book about agricultural markets in sub-Saharan Africa, this volume would be an excellent choice... This roadmap for pushing forward with agricultural market reform is extremely useful and timely.

(Steven Kyle Africa Today)

An important contribution to our understanding as to why markets have failed in sub-Saharan Africa, the only region in the world where hunger and poverty are predicted to get worse, if present trends continue.

(D. J. Shaw Development Policy Review)

It is a must for policy makers in national, regional and international institutions or authorities dealing with economic welfare, food security, trade and trade regulations institution-building and funding of investments.

(Aad van Tilburg Quarterly Journal of International Agriculture)

Reforming Agricultural Markets in Africa more than lives up to my high expectations.

(Thomas R. DeGregori African Studies Review)

This book is the most comprehensive and cogent synthesis of wisdom from studies of the African experience with agricultural market reforms and their consequences for growth, productivity, and poverty. Using a clear framework for assessing results from the reform experience, the authors conclude that the supply response and productivity of farms increase when price reforms are accompanied by judicious institutional changes and government commitment to reform. The book has a rich menu of ideas for practitioners and researchers engaged in freeing Africa from hunger and poverty through a market reform process that is complete, home-grown, and bold.

(Benno Ndulu, Lead Economist, World Bank Macroeconomics Division for Eastern Africa, and former Executive Director, African Economic Research Consortium)

This review of agricultural market reform in Africa over the last two decades is timely. Agricultural research and policy reform during that period, while necessary, did not result in the expected growth in agricultural productivity. The authors cogently argue that the reform process needs to be completed, but more importantly that a new policy and institutional agenda is needed to develop well-functioning and efficient agricultural markets and motivate further development of a nascent private sector, a view congruent with recent changes in the Rockefeller Foundation's food security program in Africa.

(Gary Toenniessen, Director for Food Security, The Rockefeller Foundation)

About this edition

• Publisher: International Food Policy Research Institute
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0801871980
• ISBN 13: 9780801871986
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224