Pro-agricultural policies have had a large and continuing impact on pro-poor growth. Yet over the last three decades, policy support for agriculture has declined for the majority of underdeveloped countries. This paper studies the causes and manifestations of this 'urban' bias both in domestic...

Strategic interaction between public and private actors is increasingly recognized as an important determinant of agricultural market performance in Africa and elsewhere. Trust and consultation tend to positively affect private activity while uncertainty of government behavior impedes it. This...

This paper draws upon development economics theory, demographic projections, and empirical evidence toconsider the likely consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic for the agricultural sector of the hardest-hitcountries of Eastern and Southern Africa. We identify four processes that have been...

The purchase of commercial farm land in Zimbabwe for resettlement has been a factor in government policy since independence in 1980, but from l 980 to 1989 only 52 000 families were relocated. The Land Acquisition Bill of 1992 made compulsory purchase easier and at present the government has...

Conservation farming (CF) practices are widely considered to be important components of sustainable agricultural development in Sub-Saharan Africa because of their potential to raise farm productivity and incomes while maintaining or improving soil quality and reducing vulnerability to variable...

Despite Zambia’s sustained and fairly robust agricultural growth since 2000, rural poverty levels have remained at about 80% over the past 15 years. Because over 70% of Zambia’s agricultural households are small-scale farmers cultivating less than two hectares of land, they must effectively...

Kenya is one of the few countries in sub-Saharan Africa experiencing an impressive rise in fertilizer use on food crops grown by smallholder farmers since the liberalization of input markets starting in the early-1990s. The impacts of these reforms and associated private sector investments on...

Two decades after initiating sweeping market reforms in their agricultural sectors, governments across Sub-Saharan Africa continue to maintain an active role in staple food markets. At the heart of this highly interventionist approach to food market development is a persistent and widespread...