Cash crops, marketing boards, and agricultural policy failures in Africa

On why policy distortions aren't the only (or even the biggest) problem

I: On agricultural productivity and economic development

I generally agree with David Ndii’s position on the singular importance of improving agricultural productivity in African states:

[T]he real binding constraint on growth in Africa is low agricultural productivity, or the agricultural productivity gap. Small-scale farming dominates African agriculture. Smallholder agriculture is also very diverse, ranging from relatively prosperous, globally competitive commodity exporters to relatively land-rich but capital-poor semi-subsistence farmers who also constitute the bulk of the continent’s poor. It is in this latter group that the highest potential for productivity growth is to be found. Simply put, Africa’s economic takeoff is contingent on a pro-poor agricultural transformation.

However, achieving Ndii’s dream will require significant ideational change among policymakers and a rebalancing of international commodity markets.

First, it is important to recalibrate perceptions of the dis…