Main Description

Why can Asia now feed its rapidly growing population, but Africa continues to experience famine? This book is the outcome of a three-year project coordinated by a group of Swedish researchers with collaborating scholars from Africa and Asia. It provides a comparative study between Asian agricultural development during the Green Revolution in food production and the current problematic agricultural situation in sub-Saharan Africa. Based on case studies of eight African and eight Asian countries (focusing on the early part of the Green Revolution), this book presents a causal and explanatory model of Asian green revolutions. It discusses why such progress has been made in Asia, but has not yet occurred in Africa. It also examines the implications of the case studies for future development in Africa.

Readership

Researchers in agricultural economics, rural sociology and development studies

Main Contents

African Food Crisis - The Relevance of Asian Experiences, G Djurfeldt, H Holmen, M Jirstrom and R Larsson

Global Perspectives on Agricultural Development, G Djurfeldt

The State and Green Revolutions in East Asia, M Jirström

The Puzzle of the Policy Shift - The Early Green Revolution in India, Indonesia and the Philippines, G Djurfeldt and M Jirström

Spurts in Production - Africa's Limping Green Revolution, H Holmén

The State and Agricultural Intensification in Sub-Saharan Africa, H Holmén

Crisis and Potential in Smallholder Food Production - Evidence from Micro Level, R Larsson

From Roller Coasters to Rocket Ships: The Role of Technology in African Agricultural Successes, S Haggblade, IFPRI, Zambia

The Role of the State in the Nigerian Green Revolution, T Akande, Nigerian Institute of Social and Economic Research, Nigeria

Why the Early Promise for Rapid Increases in Maize Productivity in Kenya Was Not Sustained, W Oluoch-Kosura and J T Karugia, University of Nairobi, Kenya

From Ujamaa to Structural Adjustment - Agricultural Intensification in Tanzania, A C Isinika, G C Ashimogo and J E D Mlangwa, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Tanzania

Smallholders and Structural Adjustment in Ghana, A W Seini and V K Nyanteng, University of Ghana, Ghana

Green Revolution and Regional Inequality: Implications of Asian Experience for Africa, K Otsuka, and T Yamano, Foundation for Advanced Studies on International Development, Japan

Conclusions and a look ahead, T Akande, G Djurfeldt, H Holmén and A Isinika

• "Drawing on three years of research by African and Asian specialists, involving study of secondary data, interviews with key individuals, and questioning over 3000 households in more than 100 villages, this is an important study deserving critical attention from the agricultural development community."
  New Agriculturalist, 2005

  
  
  

• " I particularly like the book for bringing household level information to bear on the issue and for the analyses of both Asian and African experiences.
  M Collinson, Experiemental Agriculture, 42, 2006