Resource information
Stimulating agricultural growth is
critical to reducing poverty in Africa. Commercial
agriculture, potentially a powerful driver of agricultural
growth, can develop along a number of pathways. Yet many
developing regions have failed to progress very far along
any of these pathways. Particularly in Africa, agriculture
continues to lag. During the past 30 years the
competitiveness of many African export crops has declined,
and Africa's dependence on imported food crops has
increased. While the poor performance of African agriculture
can be attributed partly to adverse agroecological
conditions, experience from elsewhere in the developing
world suggests that significant progress is possible. The
Guinea Savannah covers some 600 million hectares in Africa,
of which about 400 million can be used for agriculture. Less
than ten percent of this area is currently cropped, making
it one of the largest underused agricultural land reserves
in the world.
