Accelerating Agricultural Growth in Sub‐Saharan Africa: Discussion

Abstract

The three papers presented on this theme pose and address similar central question from different perspectives. Thus, while identifying similar problems they offer solutions which are derived from sharply contrasting views. My comments as a discussant are therefore aimed toward producing something of a synthesis of the basic ideas and then offering a critique of the major postulates. The papers convincingly demonstrate the magnitude of the crisis of agriculture in SubSaharan Africa. But this unity of purpose falters when one examines the reasons given by the different papers for the rather dismal performance of the region's agricultural sector over the last two decades or so. The Delgado-Mellor paper, for instance, rests its case on production constraints emanating primarily from rural labor shortage. According to this paper, massive rural-to-urban labor migration over this period is at the heart of the problem. Rural-urban migration has, in turn, been caused by low labor productivity in agriculture and high returns to urban employment sustained partly by increased capital inflows. In comparison, the Matlon-Spencer paper sees land shortage as the primary obstacle in the way of improved performance of the agricultural sector. The problem here is that, according to this paper, large proportions of land in Sub-Saharan Africa are not economically suitable for agricultural production either for environmental reasons or because the soils are unstable and highly variable in quality. In addition, and again in sharp contrast to the position taken by the DelgadoMellor paper, rapid growth of the rural population has created tremendous pressures on agricultural land. A combination of these factors has produced the land shortage constraint on agricultural expansion, given the traditional farming systems and methods of Sub-Saharan Africa. The Delgado-Mellor paper suggests that more favorable price-incentive policies would either not work at all or at best have very small once-and-for-all positive impact because of the combined effects of low agricultural supply response to price changes and an inelastic labor supply curve. A similar conclusion is implied in the Matlon-Spencer paper, although the culprit in this case in an inelastic supply of land.