Is African agriculture sustainable enough to support an agro-allied industrial development strategy? Evidence from Ghana and Nigeria

Presented during the AEC 2016, held in Abuja on 5-7 December 2016, this paper provides an overview of the meaning and conditions under which an agro-allied industrial development strategy in Africa could work. According to the authors, agro-industrialization presupposes the existence of a vibrant and sustainable agricultural sector which may be too unrealistic at this stage in Africa, taking into account the agricultural economic performance on the continent. Using evidence from Ghana and Nigeria, the authors argue that although agricultural production on the continent rose by an annual average of 2% between 1965 and 1980 and has continued to increase by 1.8% annually since then, population growth of 2.9% per year has resulted in an overall per capita decline in agricultural production. From self-sufficiency in food production before the 1960s, many African countries have become net food importers, with a handful of them facing severe food shortages arising from drought, desertification, climate change and wars. Moreover, economic policies have interacted with biophysical and environmental factors to generate an unsustainable use of land, agricultural labour, and natural resources which further jeopardized the agricultural growth throughout the continent.

Based on field research in Ghana and Nigeria, the authors summarize the challenges of agro-industrialization in this context and they propose an “agro-entrepreneurial” model of agriculture that combines sustainable farming practices with entrepreneurship. According to them, this model enables farmers to take advantage of emerging markets in the food value chain, as well as enhance their living standards and self-esteem as business actors.

At this link it is possible to access many other papers discussed during the AEC conference 2016 and related to the topics of farm production, innovation, land, agricultural sustainability, gender and youth, price effects, food security, agriculture and industrialization, “climate change, environment and agriculture”, agricultural value chain and agricultural trade.