Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant : Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond

Morris, Michael ; Larson, Gunnar

World Bank, Washington, DC

关键词: AGRIBUSINESS;    AGRICULTURAL DEVELOPMENT;    AGRICULTURAL EDUCATION;    AGRICULTURAL EXPORTS;    AGRICULTURAL GROWTH;   

RP-ID  :  48923

学科分类：社会科学、人文和艺术（综合）

来源: World Bank Open Knowledge Repository

【 摘 要 】

Stimulating agricultural growth iscritical to reducing poverty in Africa. Commercialagriculture, potentially a powerful driver of agriculturalgrowth, can develop along a number of pathways. Yet manydeveloping regions have failed to progress very far alongany of these pathways. Particularly in Africa, agriculturecontinues to lag. During the past 30 years thecompetitiveness of many African export crops has declined,and Africa's dependence on imported food crops hasincreased. While the poor performance of African agriculturecan be attributed partly to adverse agroecologicalconditions, experience from elsewhere in the developingworld suggests that significant progress is possible. TheGuinea Savannah covers some 600 million hectares in Africa,of which about 400 million can be used for agriculture. Lessthan ten percent of this area is currently cropped, makingit one of the largest underused agricultural land reservesin the world.