IN CONCLUSION: WHAT PROSPECTS?
Past developments show that, on the whole, African food crops and supply chains have responded to the urban challenge. The agricultural system marketed by farmers has increased as has the ratio of non-farming population to farming population. Between 1930 and 2030, the urban environment will have absorbed 70 percent of the population growth. On the […]
AN INSTITUTIONALIST ANALYSIS OF AFRICAN AGRI-FOOD CHAINS
There are certainly agricultural production problems and economic policy distortions, but the agricultural crisis is largely outside of agriculture; it is upstream (fertilizers, seeds, techniques) and downstream (marketing, transport, storage, security of outlets, etc.). The integrated commodity chains are the ones that have been the most successful, even if producer prices have been adjusted downwards […]
The example of the cotton sector
The success of the cotton sector in French-speaking Africa shows the importance of an efficient organization of the sector in terms of price stabilization and rules that allow for predictability and spillover effects on food production and distributed income. French-speaking Africa, the world’s third largest exporter, has acquired market power (cf. Ministère de la coopération, […]
Urbanization and food crop dynamics
The apparent weak dynamics of food crops can be explained, for some, by an “urban bias” (Lipton, 1977). In order to feed the cities, the public marketing boards (e.g. ONCAD in Senegal) have become enormous bureaucracies. Thus, in the face of administered prices set at low levels, parallel markets have developed whose main beneficiaries are […]
What is integrated pest management?
Abstract Integrated pest management is a system that combines different forms of biological, cultural and chemical control but minimizes the use of synthetic pesticides. Notes What is Integrated Pest Management? Suggested introduction Integrated Pest Management (IPM) is a comprehensive system that allows the small-scale farmer to manage pest problems in an environmentally responsible way. It […]
Traditional cultural techniques
By traditional crops we mean those in which non-invented varieties, manual cultural practices and industrial inputs remain marginal, while the procedures are linked to oral traditions integrated into rural societies. The matrices of all traditional crops have been forest or savanna tree gardens. Initially itinerant, they were later included in rotations of farming systems or […]