Setting priorities for promoting African food production

This paper presents guidelines for policy reforms to support sustained growth in aggregate food production. First, it recommends that governments focus on supporting small farms, since smallholders often can increase production at a lesser cost than the large farms. Second, resources should be concentrated on priority commodities and regions (i.e., those with good land and reliable rainfall). Although this approach may have severe political ramifications, it provides greater success potential than diffuse disbursement of funds. Priority should also be given to areas with limited constraints to sustained growth, so that only a few key interventions, such as road construction, need to be implemented. Other areas requiring support include appropriate fertilizer use, agricultural research, and education. The top priority for national governments and foreign assistance agencies, however, should be to strengthen African institutional capability in policy research, analysis, and decisionmaking. Expanded knowledge will reduce the risk of misguided policy reforms.