Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries

The Boserup-Ruthenberg framework has long been used to explain and understand the determinants of agricultural growth, the nature of the intensification of farming systems, investment, and technology adoption. The literature has produced an extensi...

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Main Authors:	Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P., Savastano, Sara
Format:	Policy Research Working Paper
Language:	English en_US
Published:	World Bank Group, Washington, DC 2014
Subjects:	Farm Input Rural Development Agricultural Productivity and Markets Agricultural Institution Agricultural Policy
Online Access:	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20389880/agricultural-intensification-status-six-african-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20649

id	okr-10986-20649
recordtype	oai_dc
spelling	okr-10986-206492021-04-23T14:03:59Z Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P. Savastano, Sara Farm Input Rural Development Agricultural Productivity and Markets Agricultural Institution Agricultural Policy The Boserup-Ruthenberg framework has long been used to explain and understand the determinants of agricultural growth, the nature of the intensification of farming systems, investment, and technology adoption. The literature has produced an extensive body of evidence that summarizes or tests the hypothesis in Africa and often found it confirmed. However, in the past two decades, rapid population growth has put African farming systems under stress. At the same time, there has been a sharp increase in urbanization and economic growth that is providing new market opportunities for farmers. It is therefore necessary to investigate whether this has resulted in rapid intensification of farming systems, permitting rapid agricultural growth and maintenance or increase in the incomes of the farming population. This paper describes the status of intensification in six African countries using the first round of data from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture. In addition, the paper (i) develops internationally comparable measures of overall agro-ecological crop potential and urban gravity in the farmers' location and (ii) estimates the causal impact of agro-ecological potential and urban gravity on population density, infrastructure, and market access and on a range of agricultural intensification variables. The paper shows that the new measures have relevant explanatory power. The descriptive analysis shows that the patterns of intensification observed across countries suggest several inconsistencies with Boserup-Ruthenberg. The paper also finds that urban gravity, except for its impact on crop intensities, has little impact on other intensification indicators. 2014-12-03T23:05:06Z 2014-12-03T23:05:06Z 2014-11 http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20389880/agricultural-intensification-status-six-african-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20649 English en_US Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7116 CC BY 3.0 IGO http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/ World Bank Group, Washington, DC Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper Publications & Research Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Foreign Institution
institution	Digital Repositories
building	World Bank Open Knowledge Repository
collection	World Bank
language	English en_US
topic	Farm Input Rural Development Agricultural Productivity and Markets Agricultural Institution Agricultural Policy
spellingShingle	Farm Input Rural Development Agricultural Productivity and Markets Agricultural Institution Agricultural Policy Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P. Savastano, Sara Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries
geographic_facet	Africa Sub-Saharan Africa
relation	Policy Research Working Paper;No. 7116
description	The Boserup-Ruthenberg framework has long been used to explain and understand the determinants of agricultural growth, the nature of the intensification of farming systems, investment, and technology adoption. The literature has produced an extensive body of evidence that summarizes or tests the hypothesis in Africa and often found it confirmed. However, in the past two decades, rapid population growth has put African farming systems under stress. At the same time, there has been a sharp increase in urbanization and economic growth that is providing new market opportunities for farmers. It is therefore necessary to investigate whether this has resulted in rapid intensification of farming systems, permitting rapid agricultural growth and maintenance or increase in the incomes of the farming population. This paper describes the status of intensification in six African countries using the first round of data from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture. In addition, the paper (i) develops internationally comparable measures of overall agro-ecological crop potential and urban gravity in the farmers' location and (ii) estimates the causal impact of agro-ecological potential and urban gravity on population density, infrastructure, and market access and on a range of agricultural intensification variables. The paper shows that the new measures have relevant explanatory power. The descriptive analysis shows that the patterns of intensification observed across countries suggest several inconsistencies with Boserup-Ruthenberg. The paper also finds that urban gravity, except for its impact on crop intensities, has little impact on other intensification indicators.
format	Publications & Research :: Policy Research Working Paper
author	Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P. Savastano, Sara
author_facet	Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P. Savastano, Sara
author_sort	Binswanger-Mkhize, Hans P.
title	Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries
title_short	Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries
title_full	Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries
title_fullStr	Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries
title_full_unstemmed	Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries
title_sort	agricultural intensification : the status in six african countries
publisher	World Bank Group, Washington, DC
publishDate	2014
url	http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2014/11/20389880/agricultural-intensification-status-six-african-countries http://hdl.handle.net/10986/20649
_version_	1764446947213574144

Agricultural Intensification : The Status in Six African Countries

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