“About two thirds of Africa’s population depend for their livelihood on primary crops. Agriculture is the continent’s
largest economic sector, far bigger than banking, brewing, mining or telecoms – all industries propelled by innovation and investment. Yet in the most important
sector of all, agriculture, productivity has lagged. Small farmers, largely because they are highly vulnerable, can be stubbornly resistant to change. Governments have not helped them enough. Too often, earnings from agriculture have underwritten other economic
ambitions. Industrial policy has trumped the interests of farmers, as state resources were diverted to fund the needs of exporters and urban economies. Nor has the international community done better. The tally of donor assistance for African agriculture has fallen by half since the era of Economic Structural Adjustment in the late 1980s.”
