Food Deficits and Agricultural Policies in Tropical Africa

Lofchie, Michael F.; Commins, Stephen

doi:10.1017/s0022278x00000033

Cited by 20 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 4 publications

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“…Small-scale, site-specific projects, such as aquaculture, are often promoted as a means of generating income and alleviating the continued problem of malnutrition and famine in developing economies (see, for example, Lofchie & Commins 1982;and MINIPLAN 1983). The increase of production of protein rich foods, such as fish, is especially encouraged.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating and managing risk in small‐scale fish farming in a developing economy: An application to Rwanda

Hishamunda

Jolly²,

Hatch

1998

Aquaculture Economics & Management

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Policy makers in developing economies continue to promote small-scale fish culture as a means of generating stable income and alleviating malnutrition and famine problems. In some places like Rwanda, land previously established with traditional crops has been re-allocated to small-scale fish culture. While the income derived from fish farming is a powerful incentive to produce an alternative crop, the lack of information on the risk associated with returns from smallscale fish farming in Rwanda is striking. This study used the @Risk risk analysis and simulation add-in for Lotus 1-2-3 to determine the range and the probability of economic success or failure, to identify sources of risk, and to evaluate ways of minimizing risks in smallscale fish production in Rwanda. The study compared fish farming by cooperatives and by individual farmers. Small-scale fish farming showed economic potential in Rwanda when evaluated as positive income above variable costs. The event 'income above variable costs is at least zero' occurred with a 100% probability for both cooperatives' and individual farms. When evaluation was based on net returns to land and management, economic failure became a virtual certain event, occurring with 99.8% and 95.5% probabilities for cooperatives and individual farms, respectively. Although, the level of success was sensitive to higher stocking rates, and higher fish producer prices, the amount of labour used in the production-marketing

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluating and managing risk in small‐scale fish farming in a developing economy: An application to Rwanda

Hishamunda

Jolly²,

Hatch

1998

Aquaculture Economics & Management

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“…• Governments' intervention in markets to keep prices of staples low and improve access to food: by maintaining overvalued currencies and zero tariffs on food imports and prescribing crops and setting prices, created a disincentive for investment in domestic food production and markets and encouraged export crop production (Bates, 1981;Goyal & Nash, 2017). • Floating exchange rates: in the late 1970s these caused increased living costs as US food imports exceeded the value of Africa's agricultural exports (Faostat, 2011;Lofchie & Commins, 1982).…”

Section: The Export Focus Led To Dependency On Food Imports and Food ...mentioning

confidence: 99%

Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence

Bjornlund

Bjørnlund

Rooyen³

2022

Food Sec.

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This article is the third in a series of historical reviews on sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), exploring why agricultural production and irrigation schemes are underperforming, and how this contributes to high levels of food insecurity. The expression ‘food security’ emerged in 1974 following the Sahel and Darfur famines. Despite SSA being a net agricultural exporter, food insecurity has persisted and is increasing. This is largely a legacy of the export-oriented colonial agricultural production systems, which procured scarce fertile land, water and labour to meet the needs of industries and consumers in the Global North. Colonialism also undermined the social contract between traditional leaders and communities, which had been instrumental in managing food scarcity in earlier times. Post-independence, agricultural policies remained focused on exports and neglected critical research and investment: integrating food productions systems into the domestic economy; developing supply chains and associated market, storage and value-adding infrastructure; and introducing appropriate technologies. As a result, Africa is the only region in the world where increased export production caused a decline in per capita food production. African nations should be extracted from the debt accrued due to poor colonial investments, World Bank lending practices, and global currency and interest fluctuations, which have crippled their capacity to support agriculture and improve livelihoods and food security. Farming needs to be profitable, which includes farmers being connected to domestic supply chains and market signals, local value-adding, and post-harvest storage. This will create jobs and increase income earning capacity, which is the key to households’ food security.

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“…In addition, state-run or state-sponsored agricultural development schemes, which often absorb the lion's share of government outlays on agriculture, have done little or nothing to raise output or promote the use of improved technology. What is now needed is an "action program" to improve farmers' incentives and transform techniques of cultivation (Lofchie and Commins, 1982;FAO, 1978;World Bank, 1981).…”

Section: Searching For the Evidence: African Agriculture In National mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This interpretation provides a clear justification for increased intervention from abroad to save Africa from its agrarian crisis. Some studies not only criticize the policies and programs of African governments (and, as discussed below, offer corresponding praise for the efficiency and ingenuity of individual African farmers), but go on to suggest that the only way for foreign agencies to intervene effectively to relieve famine and promote sustained agricultural development is to overrule or bypass African governments entirely (Lofchie and Commins, 1982;Williams, 1981;World Bank, 1981). Moreover, if the source of the crisis is inadequate agricultural production, the solution lies in transforming the productive capacity of African agriculture.…”

Section: Searching For the Evidence: African Agriculture In National mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Food Crisis and Agrarian Change in Africa: A Review Essay

Berry¹

1984

African Studies Review

143

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Recent assessments of the performance and prospects of African economies portray a deepening economic crisis centered on the problem of food supplies. During the last ten years, a rapidly rising number of Africans have had an increasingly difficult time getting enough to eat. By all accounts, domestic food supplies are falling further and further behind domestic needs; both governments and consumers face serious problems in procuring the kinds and quantities of food they want at prices they can afford to pay. Chronic hunger and malnutrition are spreading, escalating quickly into famine at times of environmental or financial crisis. Covering food deficits from foreign sources has also become more difficult in the last decade. World prices of grains have risen; soaring petroleum prices have put heavy strains on many African countries' balances of payments and worsened their terms of trade; and agricultural exports have not increased sufficiently to cover rising import bills. Food aid to Africa has grown at unprecedented rates in the last decade, but it is neither adequate to meet shortterm needs, nor is it a solution to the crisis in the long run. The question to which this review will be primarily addressed is whether the food crisis in Africa is mainly a result of lagging or insufficient agricultural production or whether it is part of a larger crisis of economic management, reflected in chronic balance of payments deficits, rising foreign indebtedness, inflation, low productivity, corruption, waste, and deteriorating standards of living for all but a privileged few. For the most part international agencies, from the OAU to the World Bank, have attributed the crisis to declining or stagnant agricultural production brought about by government policies which discourage or inhibit agricultural growth. The analysis walks on two legs. First, aggregate production indices compiled by African governments and/or the international agencies themselves suggest that, in most of sub-Saharan Africa, agricultural output per capita has stagnated or even declined in recent years. Second, studies of development policy in several Asian and Latin American economies (Little et al., 1970) showed that strategies of import-substituting industrialization (widely practiced in the 1950s and 1960s) tend to discriminate against agriculture. After independence, African governments frequently adopted similar policies with, it is argued, similar results: in Africa's largely agrarian economies, the resulting decline in agricultural output (or growth) not only led to food shortages and mounting balance of payment deficits, but also undermined the entire process of economic development.

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Food Deficits and Agricultural Policies in Tropical Africa

Cited by 20 publications

References 4 publications

Evaluating and managing risk in small‐scale fish farming in a developing economy: An application to Rwanda

Evaluating and managing risk in small‐scale fish farming in a developing economy: An application to Rwanda

Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence

The Food Crisis and Agrarian Change in Africa: A Review Essay

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