Research Methods in the MSU Food Security in Africa Project: Conceptualizing and Implementing Policy Relevant Studies

Over the last ten years, international donors and African governments have singled out “inappropriate policies” as a major factor influencing the poor performance of the agricultural sector and the chronic problem of human hunger. Faced with increasing budget deficits, declining export earnings, and diminishing access to sources of capital, African governments, as a condition for receiving debt relief, have been compelled to implement macroeconomic and sectoral policy reforms - structural adjustments - aimed at rectifying the disincentive policies and improving the external and domestic public accounts. The reorientation of reforms in the agricultural sector has centered on improving agricultural incentives through liberalization of input and output markets and decontrolling prices, which are considered by many experts to be more theoretically appropriate policies.