End of an Era: Africa's Development Policy Parallax

Boosting smallholder production for food security: some approaches and evidence from studies in sub-Saharan Africa

“…In this sense using more than one livelihood strategy can be represented as a result of failure of agriculture to provide a sufficient livelihood for a substantial proportion of rural dwellers (Bryceson & Bank, 2001;Bryceson, 2002). This view holds that a process of 'deagrarianisation' is occurring whereby farming is becoming a part-time, residual activity and livelihoods are becoming increasingly oriented towards non-farm and non-rural activities.…”

De-agrarianization, re-agrarianization and local economic development: Re-orientating livelihoods in African artisanal mining communities

“…The ASM literature attributes this 'branching out' to agriculture no longer being able to support rural inhabitants economically, a situation, it is argued, which has been further aggravated by Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs). As argued convincingly by a number of scholars (Chilowa 1998;Bryceson and Bank 2001;Bryceson 2002;Ellis 2006), the marked changes that have taken place in the region under adjustment, including the opening up of crop parastatals to private sector competition, reductions in export crop taxes, the devaluation of local currencies, and the removal of subsidies on vital crop inputs, have made many smallholder farming activities unviable. Bryceson (1999, p. 173) summarizes how these changes have affected the smallholder farmer in subSaharan Africa: Table 1 Labour force participation in agriculture in selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa (expressed as a percentage) Country 1965Country 1985Country -1988Country 1989Country -1991Country 1996Country -2005 SAP and economic liberalization policies resulted in a plethora of changes in rural productive and marketing infrastructure that often increased rather than reduced uncertainty.…”

‘Once a miner, always a miner’: Poverty and livelihood diversification in Akwatia, Ghana

“…The latter is a particularly contentious issue at present: a significant share of the aid earmarked for development in rural sub-Saharan Africa -dispensed by the likes of The World Bank, African Development Bank and bilateral agencies, and often implemented under the auspices of Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) -targets smallholder farming which, in the current economic climate, may be a nonstarter. The marked changes that took place across the region under structural adjustment (Structural Adjustment Programs or SAPs) in the 1980s and 1990s, including the opening up of crop parastatals to private sector competition, the devaluation of local currencies and the removal of subsidies on vital crop inputs, have made smallholder farming a difficult undertaking (Chilowa, 1998;Bryceson and Bank, 2001;Bryceson, 2002). Bryceson (1999, p. 173) offers a detailed account of what these changes have meant for the subsistence farmer in sub-Saharan Africa:…”