Determinants of farm productivity in Africa : a synthesis of four case studies

Focusing on the farm and household levels, this study synthesizes case studies in four African countries (Burkina Faso, Rwanda, Senegal, and Zimbabwe) to examine the different patterns and determinants of agricultural productivity over agro- climatic zones, crops, types of technology, degrees of environmental degradation, and levels of improved inputs. Section 2 discusses definitions and methods, while Section 3 describes the case study contexts and the data used. Section 4 contrasts aggregate and disaggregated patterns of productivity and notes the importance of noncropping income for calculating total household productivity. Section 5, the bulk of the report, presents findings concerning the key physical determinants of productivity (seed, fertilizer, land, labor, and animal traction) and conditioning factors (markets, credit, noncropping income, and farm size and land tenure) in the four study countries. Section 6 concludes with strategic, policy, and program implications. General implications of study results are as follows. (1) Increasing the use of improved inputs for sustainable intensification is crucial. (2) Strategies to increase farm productivity will need to differ, however, between favorable and unfavorable agroclimatic zones. (3) The environment and the farm productivity agendas should be linked. (4) The off-farm employment and the farm productivity agendas should be linked. (5) Cash cropping programs spur productivity by providing cash to buy improved inputs, and, depending how they are organized, by increasing access from the supply side to improved inputs and to low-risk output marketing opportunities. Includes bibliography.