Evidence assembled in this special issue of Food Policy shows that rising rural population densities in parts of Africa are profoundly affecting farming systems and the region’s economies in ways that are underappreciated in current discourse on African development issues. This study...

This paper critically examines the dimensions of market access. Using farm panel survey data from Kenya, we investigate changes in ten indicators of market access during the 1997–2010 post-liberalization period. We find major improvements in certain market access conditions and little change...

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...

Small-scale assemblers are both the most vilified and least understood actors in food value chains in Sub-Saharan Africa. Drawing on data from Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, and Mozambique, this article explores how maize assemblers influence the market access conditions of small-scale farmers. Assembly...