Premium
Technology, Environment and the Productivity Problem in African Agriculture: Comment on the World Development Report 2008
Author(s) -
WOODHOUSE PHILIP
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
journal of agrarian change
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.63
H-Index - 56
eISSN - 1471-0366
pISSN - 1471-0358
DOI - 10.1111/j.1471-0366.2009.00205.x
Subject(s) - productivity , agriculture , disconnection , economics , green revolution , investment (military) , principal (computer security) , agricultural productivity , natural resource economics , technological revolution , development economics , business , economic system , economy , economic growth , geography , political science , archaeology , politics , computer science , law , operating system
This paper is concerned with the need for a ‘productivity revolution in smallholder farming’ that the World Development Report 2008 (WDR08) identifies is required in sub‐Saharan Africa. It reviews the technological options for such a productivity revolution in Africa, and how these are conditioned by the ‘agriculture‐based’ model the WDR08 uses to characterize African economies. It argues that the model effects, firstly, a disconnection of agriculture from ‘urban’ Africa that constitutes its principal market and the source of investment and inputs with which to raise productivity, and, secondly, an adherence to unrealistic and sometimes contradictory assumptions about the way markets link agriculture to other parts of the economy.