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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Underlying Causes of the Food Crisis in Africa |
Author: | Darkoh, M.B.K. |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Transafrican Journal of History |
Volume: | 18 |
Pages: | 54-79 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Africa |
Subjects: | agricultural economy agricultural crisis Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Drought and Desertification Development and Technology Politics and Government |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328704 |
Abstract: | In this study, the roots of the present food crisis in Africa are traced back to the past and contemporary history of Africa's relationship with the Western world. The quintessential characteristic of precolonial agriculture was that it used essentially indigenous technology which tied domestic resource use to the pattern and growth of domestic demand, and responded adequately to famine and food shortages. Capitalist penetration into Africa drastically altered this situation. Contemporary factors contributing to Africa's food crisis include Africa's economic dependency and its debt burden; the structural adjustment programmes imposed by the World Bank and the IMF; the negative effect of food aid on local food production; wrong agricultural research priorities and lack of appropriate agricultural technology; crude fiscal policies and the priority given by ruling elites to cash crop production at the cost of food crops; wrong development advices; the neglect of the role of women farmers; poverty and population growth; militarism and instability; and the lack of national food policies. Bibliogr., notes, sum. |