Agriculture for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa: An Update

Agriculture has multiple functions to fulfill for the development of the Sub-Saharan Africa countries: a source of growth, an instrument for poverty reduction, and a contribution to the provision of environmental services. Yet, it is still used far below potential, with gains in land and labor productivity lagging below those of other regions. Successful use of agriculture for development will require greater attention by governments and donors, supported by scholarship and learning. The economics profession has an important role to play in helping re-conceptualize in a new paradigm the role of agriculture for development, design and evaluate new approaches, contribute to capacity building, and participate to policy advice and the mobilization of political support. 1. Toward a new paradigm in using agriculture for development in the “agriculture-based” countries The agriculture-based countries have, by definition, a high share of total poverty in the rural sector and a high share of GDP growth originating in agriculture, the latter fundamentally because agriculture accounts for a large share of their GDPs. They include all the SS-Africa countries else than South Africa as a transforming country and some mineral-rich countries. The current role of agriculture in the development of these countries is not only in support of industrialization––as in the well known dual economy models and the classical models of “agriculture on the road to industrialization” (Mellor, 1998) and “agricultural-demand-led industrialization” (Adelman, 1978)––and for economic diversification away from agriculture (following the regularities of the structural transformation with a declining share of agriculture in GDP and in the labor force). Instead, in the emerging paradigm espoused in the WDR 2008, agriculture has multiple functions for the development of these countries in helping trigger overall economic growth at early stages, reduce poverty, increase food security, equalize gender status, reduce rural-urban income disparities, conserve resources, and provide environmental services (Byerlee, de Janvry, and Sadoulet, 2009). These multiple functions can be win-win, but more generally imply trade-offs and the consequent need for country-level priority setting in deciding how to effectively use agriculture for development. How to use agriculture for development should consequently be an important component––though frequently neglected––of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers and other national planning exercises. Claim 1: Using the multiple functions of agriculture for the development of the agriculture-based Sub-Saharan Africa countries offers an important option that should not be missed. How to do this must be designed in priority-setting exercises conducted at the country level.