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2019 | OriginalPaper | Chapter

25. The Role of Agriculture for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa

Author : Renu Modi

Published in: The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy

Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK

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Abstract

That agriculture contributes significantly to several sub-Saharan African (SSA) economies and provides livelihoods to a bulk of the rural poor, mainly smallholder farmers, is incontrovertible. Though agriculture in SSA is characterized by moderate-to-low productivity and offers depressed returns, it continues to be the vital sector for employment generation, food security, and poverty reduction. The slack performance of the agricultural segment has resulted in high levels of poverty and hunger in the region. This chapter posits an increase in public spending on agriculture and its prioritization in the development agenda of states. It acknowledges the proven capabilities of this critical sector for income generation, poverty reduction, and food security and thereby its ability to engender pro-poor growth in SSA.

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previous chapter Advancing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development

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Forty-eight countries out of Africa’s 54 countries are a part of SSA, Algeria, Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia are excluded from this category (World Bank 2018a).

It includes forestry, fisheries, livestock rearing, and dairy farming, unless otherwise stated agriculture in this paper is regarded as production of food through farming.

Economic poverty refers to how much poor people spend on goods and services to maintain a minimally accepted standard of living in a given social context. Poverty is also social, political and cultural (UNESCO n.d.).

Smallholder farmers are those marginal and sub-marginal farm households that own or/and cultivate less than 2.0 hectare of land (FAO 2002).

Agricultural land is share of land area that is arable, under permanent crops, and under permanent pastures.

It was endorsed by the African heads of states and governments of the AU (NEPAD 2003) to transform agriculture and provide food security.

HDI emphasizes that people and their capabilities and not economic growth alone, should be the ultimate criteria for assessing development of a country. HDI is a composite of three key dimensions of human development: health, education, and life expectancy. However, it does not capture inequalities or poverty, and gross national income per capita reflects an individual’s economic development’ (UNDP n.d.).

It is measured by output per unit area of land and per unit of labour in the farming sector.

South Africa, the second largest economy in terms of GDP, (after Nigeria) has the highest poverty levels at 55.5 percent and is one of the most iniquitous societies in the world! (Statistics South Africa 2017).

There have been other success stories of growth in agriculture such as in Vietnam, but with a different set of policies. However, the growth and the path to poverty reduction was different in East Asian economies that banked upon comparative advantage in labour-intensive manufacturing sector through supportive policies and institutions, macroeconomic stability, favourable industrial, and labour market policies (Hasan and Quibria 2004: 259).

A measure to determine the number of people who do not work.

From a phase of high birth and death rates to lower birth and death rates.

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Title: The Role of Agriculture for Food Security and Poverty Reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa
Author: Renu Modi
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan UK
Book: The Palgrave Handbook of Contemporary International Political Economy
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-45442-3

Electronic ISBN: 978-1-137-45443-0

Copyright Year: 2019
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-45443-0_25

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