Anticipating Africa’s Policy Challenges in the Decade Ahead: Africa’s Changing Farm Structure and Employment Challenge
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EmailRegional Network of Agricultural Policy Institute (ReNAPRI). 2014. Anticipating Africa’s Policy Challenges in the Decade Ahead: Africa’s Changing Farm Structure and Employment Challenge. Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Brief 4. East Lansing: Michigan State University
KEY MESSAGES
- Medium-scale farms are growing rapidly in much of Africa and now control more land than largescale foreign investors in each of the three countries examined (Ghana, Kenya, and Zambia).
- Medium-scale farms control more land than smallscale (0 to 5 hectare) holdings in at least Ghana and Zambia. There is a strong inverse correlation between landholding size and the proportion of land under cultivation.
- The rise of medium-scale farms reflects a rising demand for prime land by upper-class urban and rural people.
- Eighty-percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s arable land reserves are in a handful of countries, many of which are fragile states. By contrast, many smallscale farming areas have become enclaves unable to expand because they are surrounded by lands of a different tenure system.
- Population growth in densely populated smallholder farming areas is contributing to growing land pressures and unsustainable forms of agricultural intensification.