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By Professor Douglas Gollin[1]
In this essay Douglas Gollin, Professor of Development Economics at Oxford University and Visiting Scholar at ACET makes the point that while Africa’s cities are undergoing remarkable growth, rural areas remain poor and large numbers of farmers continue to produce primarily for their subsistence. But if urban growth is not sufficient to drive an economic transformation in rural areas, then what kind of rural or agricultural transformation is needed? You can ....

The increase in commodity prices is an opportunity to improve the welfare of African farmers. One way to do this is by reorganizing domestic supply chains. Cash crops, such as cocoa, cotton, coffee and tobacco, are a major source of export revenue for a large number of Sub-Saharan African countries and the livelihood basis for millions of rural households who grow those crops. Generally speaking, poor farmers in the cash crop sector should stand a better chance to rise out of poverty—on t....