loading
The rural road question and Nigeria’s agricultural development
One of the critical problems of Nigeria ‘ s agricultural sector is the inadequate or nonexistent supporting physical infrastructure such as rural roads, storage and marketing facilities, and water supply. This paper comprises a discussion of the extent of the rural roads network and the consequences of its growth on Nigerian agriculture during the 1970 […]
Fertilizer policy in Africa : lessons from development programs and adjustment lending, 1970-87
The removal of fertilizer subsidies, and privatization of importation and distribution networks have been prominent features of recent policy reforms in MADIA countries to reduce budget deficits and the role of the public sector. This paper reviews the reform policies implemented during the 1980s in the MADIA countries and their impact on the development of […]
Markets, marketing boards, and cooperatives in Africa: issues in adjustment policy
The structural adjustment efforts under way since the early 1980s have emphasized the liberalization of agricultural prices and markets and have led to a vigorous debate about the appropriate roles of the private and public sectors. This paper examines the causes of state intervention prior to independence as well as post-independence experience with marketing parastatals […]
Smallholder and large scale agriculture in Africa : are there tradeoffs between growth and equity?
This paper attempts to explore the causes of productivity differences by farm size by focusing on Kenya and Malawi, which have had a superior record in maintaining agricultural data. The data show that yields per hectare are higher on large farms, which not only make more intensive use of modern inputs but also of labor. […]
Managing agricultural development in Africa: three articles on lessons from experience
This report consists of three articles originally published in journals. Together the articles serve to illuminate the main issues identified and addressed by the MADIA project, to illustrate the benefits of cross country analysis, and to show the importance of the agricultural sector for broad based growth in Africa. The first article ” Lessons of […]
Cotton in Africa: an analysis of differences in performance
The development of African economies depends to a great extent on the performance of their agricultural sector, within which export crops play an important role. However, Africa ‘ s share of world trade in traditional export crops has declined steadily during the past two decades. This paper focuses on cotton, a key export crop. The […]
Structural adjustment, agricultural development and the poor: lessons from the Malawian experience
This report examines the complex problems faced by an economically well managed but small, poor and landlocked country in trying to achieve equitable growth while coping with great external shocks. Malawi ‘ s problems of adjustment have been made difficult by dualism within dualism – a structure whereby the country ‘ s agriculture sector is […]
