African Agrarian Systems Research Articles

COVID-19 impact on agriculture and food security in Africa. A systematic review and meta-analysis

While agriculture is the life-wire for many African economies, the sector has been exposed to multiple shocks, leading to food insecurity concerns. COVID-19′s seemingly perennial nature suggests the need for African agrarian systems to explore pathways to achieve food security in the midst of pandemics. However, existing knowledge on the effects of COVID-19 agriculture and food security remains fragmented. This article reviews preliminary documented and projected effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on agriculture and food security in Africa, combining an inter-rater reliability (IRR) – based systematic review with meta-analysis on 74 rigorously selected published items, including 157 case studies. Our analysis hitches on the sustainable livelihoods framework and a novel systematic review and meta-analysis protocol (Tadesse, 2020). An IRR score of 0.93 suggests overwhelming convergence of contemporary COVID-19 scholarship on the negative economic effects of COVID-19 on agricultural supply and demand across Africa, which, in combination with other factors, culminates in increasing, multi-dimensional food insecurity, hitting hard on the poor and vulnerable. The meta-analysis suggests that agriculture is more exposed to COVID-19 effects than other (non-agricultural) sectors, with an overall pooled association effect size (RR) for the COVID-19 pandemic and farming occupation of 1.25 (95% CI, 0.72–0.96;P = 0.01), and significant heterogeneity between studies (Ι2 = 100%,P < 0.00). Future reviews and meta analyses increasingly focusing on methodological details are recommended, to provide insights on COVID-19 effects on African agriculture and food security. Policy implications of prolonged COVID-19 effects on agriculture and food security in Africa are then contemplated.

Socionatures, Space, and Decolonisation: Amílcar Cabral's Praxis of Dialectics

AbstractThe agronomic writings of influential theorist and independence leader Amílcar Cabral contain a hitherto underappreciated dialectical approach that is environmental, nonreductive, spatialised, nonteleological, and anticolonial, with significance for geographies that are simultaneously critical, physical, Southern, Black, African, and decolonial. Cabral's interests in socionatures—and especially colonialism and the state—emerged from childhood in colonial Cabo Verde. His undergraduate thesis examines dialectics of soil erosion and agrarian structures in Portugal, amidst his politicisation and anti‐colonial networking. He developed his dialectical approach spatially as he conducted Guinea‐Bissau's agricultural census and advanced beyond methodological nationalism and evolutionary stagism by emphasising colonial connections (colonial state mechanisation and export crops in African agrarian systems). These insights and concerns shaped and were shaped by his work on warehouses, Angolan plantations, and broader post‐1960 liberation struggles to suggest that a rural guerrilla strategy was possible and necessary in Guinea through dialectical engagements with diverse peasantries and international support.

Strengthening Conservation Agriculture innovation systems in sub-Saharan Africa: lessons from a stakeholder analysis

ABSTRACT Complexity of African agrarian systems necessitates that agricultural research and development transition to agricultural innovation system [AIS] approaches. While AIS perspectives are embraced across sub-Saharan Africa, engagement of stakeholders in agricultural research and development processes as espoused in AIS paradigm remains limited. This paper aims to analyze key stakeholders in the AIS in Malawi using the case of Conservation Agriculture [CA]. We analyze roles, organizational capacity and collaboration of stakeholders in Malawi’s CA innovation system. Although Government has the most extensive role, NGOs dominate the national CA agenda, while smallholder farmers remain passive recipients of CA interventions. Many CA promoters lack technical and financial capacity, and pursue limited collaboration, which diminish prospects of inclusive stakeholder engagement. While insufficient resources lead to inadequate technical support to smallholders, the limited collaboration hinders integration of programmes, multiple sources of innovation and knowledge required to foster social learning and sustainability of CA. Our findings indicate a need to: (1) strengthen understanding of AIS approaches among CA innovation system stakeholders; (2) build stronger partnerships in CA research and development by strengthening stakeholder platforms and social processes; (3) strengthen collaboration advisory mechanisms to facilitate knowledge-sharing, resource mobilization and joint programme implementation with strengthened feedback loops.

Viabilité à moyen et long termes d'un système agraire villageois d'Afrique soudano-sahélienne. Le cas de Bala au Burkina Faso

Medium and long term viability of the agrarian system of a village in soudano-saheuan Africa. the case of Bala in Burkina Faso Can african agrarian systems carry on rapidly increasing populations ? To contribute to this debate, a model has been built at the village level in the cotton zone and is used in a recursive way. The maximum of the available information on the zone has been incorporated. Simulations show a crucial threshold when fallow desappear and when it is necessary to combine different techniques for a better management of the soils and of the organic matter ; doing so, a permanent regime could be reach with four times more people but with half the revenue.

Land in African Agrarian Systems. Thomas J. Bassett and Donald E. Crummey, editors. Madison, WI. and London: University of Wisconsin Press. 1993

Land in African Agrarian Systems. Thomas J. Bassett and Donald E. Crummey, editors. Madison, WI. and London: University of Wisconsin Press. 1993. xi, 418 pp. Reviewed by Stephen P. Reyna, Professor and Chair of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire, Durham.

Reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Atkin, M. (1993). Snouts in the Trough: European Farmers, the Common Agricultural Policy and the Public Purse.Bassett, T. J. and Crummey, D. E. (eds.) (1993). Land in African Agrarian Systems. Wisconsin: University of Wisconsin Press.D'Antonio, W. V., Sasaki, M. and Yonebayashi, Y. (eds.) (1994). Ecology, Society and the Quality of Social Life.Gibbon, P., Havnevik, K. J. and Hermele, K. (1993). Blighted Harvest‐ The World Bank and African Agriculture in the 1980s. London: James Currey Ltd and New Jersey: Africa World Press.Hamdar, B. C. (1993). The Relationship Between Agricultural Policy and Forestry in the Southern Region of the United States.Hoff, K., Braverman, A. and Stiglitz, J. (eds.) (1993). The Economics of Rural Organisation:MacArthur, J. D. and Weiss, J. (eds.) (1994).Mori, H. and Lin, B‐H. (1994). Japanese Beef Market: Distinctly Unique. Senshu University Press.Taylor, C. R., Reichelderfer, K. H. and Johnson, S. R. (eds.) (1993).

Land in African Agrarian Systems

Land in African Agrarian Systems

Book reviews : Bassett, T.J. and Crummey, D.E., editors, 1993: Land in African agrarian systems. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. xi + 418 pp. £40.00 cloth, £21.00 paper. ISBN: 0 299 13610 8 (cloth), 0 299 13614 0 (paper)

Book reviews : Bassett, T.J. and Crummey, D.E., editors, 1993: Land in African agrarian systems. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press. xi + 418 pp. £40.00 cloth, £21.00 paper. ISBN: 0 299 13610 8 (cloth), 0 299 13614 0 (paper)

Book reviews

Book reviewed in this article:Hoggart, K. ed (1992) Agricultural change, environment and economy. Essays in honour of W.B. Morgan.Bolsius, E.C.A., G. Clark and J.G. Groeneadijk eds. (1993) The retreat: Rural land‐use and European agriculture.Bodenstedt, A. A., S. Merl and V.A. Nutrikhin cds. (1993) Social problems in rural areas under conditions of change.Butler‐Flora, C, J.L. Flora, J.D. Spears and L.E. Swanson with M.B. Lapping and M.L. Weinberg (1992). Rural communities.Mayerfeld Bell, M. (1994) Childerley. Nature and morality in a country village.Voadench, G. und H. Timmennann (1993). Milchbauern in der Wesermarsch.Corbin, J.R. (1993) The anarchist passion. Class conflict in southern Spain, 1810–1965.Kavanagh, W. (1994) Villagers of the Sierra de Gredos. Transhumant cattle‐raisers in Central Spain.Bassett, T.J. and D.E. Crummey eds. (1993) Land in African agrarian systems.

Land in African Agrarian Systems

Land in African Agrarian Systems argues that proposals for sweeping changes in African agricultural land tenure are misconceived. Colonial administrators, African elites, and foreign aid donors have historically viewed the variety of indigenous landholding systems as obstacles to increased agricultural production and to economic progress in general, believing that only private land ownership will provide the investment security necessary for agricultural efficiency. This volume contends that privatisation is not the panacea for Africa's agrarian ills, and that any solutions must take into account critical social dynamics that influence how productive resources are acquired, used, contested and underutilised. Editors Thomas J. Bassett and Donald E. Crummey bring together specialists with a variety of perspectives on land tenure issues throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Whether focusing at the level of household, community or nation, these case studies describe how land access, control, and management are embedded in social, political and economic structures that fluctuate and change over time. They examine these embedded systems closely to illuminate the relationship between landholding patterns and agricultural output, stressing throughout that land tenure is a political process. The contributors, an international group of scholars in the areas of land tenure, geography, African studies, anthropology, history and political science, call for pragmatism and respect for the flexibility of indigenous tenure systems, while also addressing the complicated issues of state intervention, socio-economic differentiation, and the social relations of production. By looking at the social and political processes behind the struggles over productive resources, Land in African Agrarian Systems aims to advance the debate over the land question and agricultural performance in Africa, and to counter the arguments of the powerful forces pushing for privatisation. Land in African Agrarian Systems advances the debate over the land question and agricultural performance in Africa, and counters the arguments of the powerful forces pushing for privatisation.

Land in African Agrarian Systems

Land in African Agrarian Systems

African Agrarian Systems: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Second International African Seminar, Lovanium University, Leopoldville 1960.

African Agrarian Systems: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Second International African Seminar, Lovanium University, Leopoldville 1960.

: African Agrarian Systems: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Second International African Seminar, Lovanium University. Leopoldville, January, 1960 . Daniel Biebuyck.

: African Agrarian Systems: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Second International African Seminar, Lovanium University. Leopoldville, January, 1960 . Daniel Biebuyck.

African Agrarian Systems edited by Daniel Biebuck London, Oxford University Press for International African Institute, 1963. Pp. xiii+407. 45s.

African Agrarian Systems edited by Daniel Biebuck London, Oxford University Press for International African Institute, 1963. Pp. xiii+407. 45^s.

African Agrarian Systems: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Second International African Seminar, Lovanium University, Leopoldville, January 1960

African Agrarian Systems: Studies Presented and Discussed at the Second International African Seminar, Lovanium University, Leopoldville, January 1960

African Agrarian Systems

Journal Article African Agrarian Systems Get access African Agrarian Systems. Ed. Daniel Biebuyck. Published for the J. R. Institute by O.U.P. 45s. R. J. N. Swynnerton R. J. N. Swynnerton Search for other works by this author on: Oxford Academic Google Scholar African Affairs, Volume 63, Issue 251, April 1964, Pages 154–155, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a095209 Published: 01 April 1964

Daniel Biebuyck (ed.): African agrarian systems: studies presented and discussed at the second International African Seminar, Lovanium University, Leopoldville, January 1960. xiii, 408 pp. London, etc.: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1963. 45s.

Daniel Biebuyck (ed.): African agrarian systems: studies presented and discussed at the second International African Seminar, Lovanium University, Leopoldville, January 1960. xiii, 408 pp. London, etc.: Oxford University Press for the International African Institute, 1963. 45s. - Volume 27 Issue 1