As cities across Africa demand moreabundant and affordable food supplies, local officials lookfor ways to improve systems that have always relied onpersonal relationships and cultural ties, not formal marketsor government regulations. The cities of Sub-Saharan Africasome of the fastest growing in the world face potentiallyserious dilemmas in supplying their populations with food.Over the past two decades, the continent's agriculturalexports have declined while imports have risen sharply. Overthe same period, food shortages and increasing prices havespawned strong political protests, notably in heavilyurbanized countries such as Cote d'Ivoire and Zambia.Strengthening the connections between consumers in citiesand the over 70 percent of Africans who depend onagriculture for their livelihood is considered by manyexperts to be one of the most important and formidablechallenges facing Africa today. In most parts of thecontinent, the link between farm and marketplace is neitherdirect or easily understood; distribution systems arefrequently obtuse and inefficient, held together by personalrelationships, private marketing networks and unregulated transactions.
PDF
download
878987797
028-85220240
