Various explanations have been advanced for the persistent
under‑performance of agriculture in many African
countries, where smallholder farming is still the dominant
livelihood activity and the main source of employment,
food and income. Some of the oldest arguments
remain the most compelling. African farmers face harsh
agro‑ecologies and erratic weather, characterised by
low soil fertility, recurrent droughts and/or floods,
and increasingly unpredictable weather patterns associated
with climate change. Vulnerability to shocks is
compounded by infrastructure deficits (roads and transport
networks, telecommunications, potable water and
irrigation) that keep poor communities poor and vulnerable,
as testified by the phenomenon observed during
livelihood crises of steep food price gradients from
isolated rural villages to densely settled urban centres.
African farmers have also been inadequately protected
against the forces of globalisation and adverse international
terms of trade – for instance, Western farmers and
markets are heavily protected in ways that African farmers
and markets are not.
Finally, African agriculture has been the subject of
numerous experiments – strategies, policies,
programmes and projects – from ‘Integrated Rural
Development Programmes’ (IRDPs) in the 1960s to
‘Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers’ (PRSPs) in the 1990s.
Perhaps the most significant intervention of the last
half‑century was agricultural liberalisation, promoted
under the ‘structural adjustment’ reform umbrella during
the 1980s and 1990s.