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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Agricultural Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa |
Author: | Singh, Harjinder |
Year: | 1988 |
Periodical: | Ind-Africana: Collected Research Papers on Africa |
Volume: | 1 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | April |
Pages: | 17-30 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Subsaharan Africa |
Subjects: | agricultural crisis Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology |
Abstract: | Over the past three decades, the performance of the agricultural sector in general and the food sector in particular in sub-Saharan Africa has been dismal. Climatic constraints have been compounded by such factors as warfare, the pattern of land use, rapid population growth, the existence of a large and inefficient subsistence sector, lack of agricultural research and experimentation, State policies favouring large over small-scale farms, government price controls in favour of the urban consumer, marketing problems, and scarcity of modern inputs. Although at present there is an urgent need to provide food assistance to the affected countries of sub-Saharan Africa, food aid is not the solution. Efforts must be made to formulate and implement short, medium and long-term policies which bring about sufficient increase in agricultural production. Many sub-Saharan African countries are now turning to the Indian experience, in which high priority was given to the development of irrigation facilities, in order to launch a programme of food self-sufficiency. Ref. |