Generalizing from past successes

"Past successes in African agriculture can point the way to promising avenues for achieving similar success in the future. Drawing lessons from past success requires identifying a range of successful and less successful episodes and then studying and comparing them. To identify a broad range of successful episodes in African agriculture, our analytical team launched an expert survey, polling more than 1,000 African agriculture specialists. In conducting this review, we defined 'success' as: a significant, durable change in agriculture resulting in an increase in agriculturally derived aggregate income, together with reduced poverty and/or improved environmental quality. From the responses, we, together with our advisory group, selected a dozen successful episodes for in-depth review and dispatched case study teams to investigate them. Although these episodes differ widely in terms of instigators of change, points of intervention, levels of subsidy involved, food and export crops, regional diversity, duration, and scale achieved, they suggest ways in which past sucesses can be replicated and scaled up." From Text

Maize Price Projections for Zambia's 2006/07 Marketing Season

The coming 2005/06 maize harvest promises to be a good one, certainly better than last season. Market prices have begun falling, and the question now is how far they are likely to fall. Government currently has a maize export ban in place. This short note aims to assess the likely price levels this coming season, with and without an export ban.food security, food policy, Zambia, maize, Crop Production/Industries, Q18,

Returns to Investment in Agriculture

Investment in agriculture is necessary for ensuring rapid economic growth and poverty reduction in Zambia, as elsewhere in Africa. Yet many of the key investments required to accelerate agricultural growth – technological research, rural infrastructure and market standards, organization and enforcement -- are public goods. Because the private sector cannot capture gains from these investments, they will not invest in amounts sufficient to ensure broad-based agricultural growth. Therefore, the public sector needs to provide the necessary research, transport and market infrastructure necessary to stimulate agricultural growth. Zambia currently allocates 6% of government outlays for agriculture. This is less that the 10% commitment Zambia has made under the CAADP agreement and far less than the 15% spent by Asian countries at the launch of their Green Revolution. In allocating these funds, Zambia spends the majority of its discretionary agricultural budget on recurrent subsidies for private farm inputs, primarily fertilizer, while spending far less on rural infrastructure and technology development. Yet international evidence suggests that returns to private input subsidies are typically lower than returns to investments in public goods, in part because private input subsidies are prone to rent-seeking and in part because public input subsidies substitute for private financing of these private inputs. Investment in public goods such as agricultural research and extension, rural roads and irrigation typically produce returns two to six times greater than spending devoted to input subsidies. Therefore, a reorientation of public spending, away from private input subsidies and towards increased investment in public goods, would likely accelerate agricultural growth in Zambia.food security, food policy, Zambia, agriculture growth, public investment, Research and Development/Tech Change/Emerging Technologies, Q19,

Bringing the Poor into a Growth Agenda: What Role for Africa’s Rural Nonfarm Economy?

Distributed as: Appendix 1. Background Paper for Agriculture and Lands. African Ministers Meeting, April 2009. Prepared under the Food Security III Cooperative Agreement (GDG-A- 00-02-00021-00) between the Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Michigan State University, and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).agriculture, growth, poor, food security, Food Security and Poverty, Q12,

Building on successes in African agriculture:

CONTENTS: 1. African Agriculture: Past Performance, Future Imperatives / Steven Haggblade, Peter Hazell, Ingrid Kirsten, and Richard Mkandawire; 2. Generalizing from Past Successes / Steven Haggblade; 3. Recent Growth in African Cassava / Felix Nweke, Steven Haggblade, and Ballard Zulu; 4. Maize Breeding in East and Southern Africa, 1900–2000 / Melinda Smale and T. S. Jayne; 5. Mali's White Revolution: Smallholder Cotton from 1960 to 2003 / James Tefft; 6. Smallholder Dairy in Kenya / Margaret Ngigi; 7. Are Kenya's Horticultural Exports a Replicable Success Story? / Nicholas Minot and Margaret Ngigi; 8. Strategies for Sustainable Natural Resource Management / Steven Franzel, Frank Place, Chris Reij, and Gelson Tembo; 9. The Changing Policy Environment Facing African Agriculture / Francis Chigunta, Ross Herbert, Michael Johnson, and Richard Mkandawire; 10. The Pretoria Statement on the Future of African AgricultureCollective behavior, Property rights, Public goods, Agroforestry, Irrigation, Fisheries, Forest management, Rangelands, plant genetic resources, Pests Management, Watersheds, agribusiness, extension activities, extension-research linkages, Collective action,

Staple food prices in Uganda

Prepared for the Comesa policy seminar on “Variation in staple food prices: Causes, consequence, and policy options”, Maputo, Mozambique, 25-26 January 2010 under the African Agricultural Marketing Project (AAMP)Uganda, food security, food prices, Agricultural and Food Policy, Demand and Price Analysis, Food Security and Poverty, International Development, International Relations/Trade, q11, q13, q17, q18,

Potential Impact of the Kwacha Appreciation on Zambia Agriculture

The rapid recent appreciation of the Kwacha has placed these gains at risk. The sudden strengthening of the Kwacha since November 2005 has reduced the Kwacha value of agricultural exports by 30%, forcing reductions in farmgate prices and eroding exporter profit margins. As in a classic case of Dutch Disease, large inflows of foreign exchange–whether from surging international copper prices, foreign aid or speculative financial inflows–have contributed to the strengthening Kwacha. The subsequent rapid appreciation of the Kwacha risks making much of Zambia’s export agriculture uncompetitive on world markets.food security, food policy, Zambia, appreciation impact, Farm Management, Q18,

Conservation farming in Zambia:

Since 1996, a growing coalition of stakeholders from the private sector, government and donor communities has promoted a new package of agronomic practices for smallholders in Zambia. The conservation farming (CF) system they advocate involves: dry-season land preparation using minimum tillage methods (either ox-drawn rip lines or hand-hoe basins laid out in a precise grid of 15,850 basins per hectare); no burning but rather retention of crop residue from the prior harvest; planting and input application in fixed planting stations; and nitrogen-fixing crop rotations. The CF system enables farmers to plant with the first rains when seeds will benefit from the initial nitrogen flush in the soil. By breaking pre-existing plow-pan barriers, the CF basins and rip lines improve water infiltration, water retention and plant root development. The precise layout of grids and planting lines enables farmers to locate fertilizer and organic material in close proximity to the plants, where they will provide greatest benefits. Evidence from similar technologies in other parts of Africa suggests that the effectiveness of conservation farming will vary not only across regions but also across crops and over time, due to variations in weather and rainfall. In addition, many of the benefits of CF including improved soil structure, gains from nitrogen-fixing crop rotations and reduced field preparation labor occur gradually and over time. Therefore, it will be important to establish long-term monitoring efforts for conservation farming and control plots across a broad range of geographic settings, crops and seasons. Results and their interpretation are from a survey of 125 farms in Central and Southern provinces during the 2001/2 cropping season.Southern Africa, africa south of sahara,

Prospects for equitable growth in rural sub-Saharan Africa

Improving agricultural technology equitably in Africa has been difficult in the past because of the vast differences, as well as weak institutions and infrastructure in its many regions. However, the prospects for equitable growth are good for several reasons. The distribution of land has not deteriorated, and there are few landless people in Africa. Technical packages do not favor large farms over small ones, and Africa's social institutions support people with a safety net for sources of income. The author, however, points out that equitable growth, though possible is not assured and several research and policy initiatives will be needed to capitalize on the potential. First, research must continue to focus on technology appropriate for small farms and crops. Policy makers must no longer withhold assistance from service enterprises or nonfarm activities of women. Rural infrastructure has to be upgraded, and finally, governments will need to monitor land tenure and tenancy.Economic Theory&Research,Agricultural Research,Crops&Crop Management Systems,Environmental Economics&Policies,Agricultural Knowledge&Information Systems

Recent growth in African cassava

According to the authors, "Cassava serves as a staple food for 200 million Africans, second only to maize in its calorie contribution. In response to a series of devastating attacks by cassava diseases and pests over the past several decades, the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) and several national agricultural research services have launched successful cassava research programs... " This brief describes some of the programs, their impact and the drivers of change. It concludes with an analyis of the key lessons learned for building future successes. From Brief