New Land is not enough: Agricultural performance of New Lands settlement in West Africa

Abstract

For centuries onchocerciasis, or river blindness, has contributed to the underpopulation of fertile river basins in much of the West African savanna. For this reason, an 11 -country program initiated in 1974 to control river blindness disease was expected to increase total crop production and improve living standards. Farm management data from 15 sites show that despite the control program's success in opening up new land, the farmers moving back into these areas were successful in increasing and stabilizing their incomes at only five of the 15 sites. Two of the major factors that explained these low success rates were the highly negative policy environment and lack of appropriate technology and supports for intensive cereal production in the drier semi-arid basins.