Agricultural Growth, Domestic Policies, the External Environment, and Assistance to Africa

📖 The Scoop

Africa's economic crisis is increasingly coming to be recognized as stemming from the critical state of agriculture in most African economies. In response to these concerns, a long term comparative study called Managing Agricultural Development in Africa (MADIA) has been underway since 1984. Its purpose has been to determine where growth has occurred in the agricultural sectors of selected African countries since their independence in the mid-1960s and why, and to assess the extent to which domestic policies and the external economic environment (especially including changes in world market prospects, and the levels, form and composition of aid) have contributed to the process of growth. This paper gives an overview of the study's methodology and key findings to date. It demonstrates the complexity of agricultural development in Africa, the number of variables that impinge on the outcomes, and in particular the extent of variability in national endowments as well as in policy response outcomes.

Genre: Business & Economics / Economic Conditions (fancy, right?)