The Africa Agriculture Status Report: Focus on Staple Crops was inspired by the need to have an accessible and reliable resource depicting the status and trends of African agriculture. Given the crucial role agriculture plays in African economic growth and development, it is critical to have such a resource—compiled with current and accurate information on key indicators—as a reference when designing policies and strategies that guide future growth and development of agriculture in Africa.
The 2013 Report has taken more than one and half years to produce. During this period we consulted a number of Government Agriculture Ministries, Bureaus of Statistics, bilateral and multilateral organizations, NGOs, and other research institutions who have done extensive work and are involved in the collection and publication of relevant Sub-Saharan Africa agriculture statistical reports and data on staple crop production, distribution, and marketing. We have attempted to consolidate and condense the relevant staple crops statistical reports and data in one publication and to provide a contextual narrative to these data to inform Africa’s agriculture stakeholders and decision makers.
Our aim is to produce an annual series of the Africa Agriculture Status Report that will provide an in-depth and comprehensive analysis of emerging issues and challenges being faced by African smallholder farmers and allow African scholars and professionals to contribute practical and evidence-based solutions. The publication also offers a platform to share relevant and current knowledge and experiences that can contribute to improving Africa’s food security. The Report is also an opportunity to promote open access to Africa’s agriculture data. Another complementary objective of this Report is to develop a common platform where national agricultural surveys/censuses, data from national and international research institutions, data from bilateral and multilateral funded projects and programs can be readily accessible to all the stakeholders interested in agriculture and food security in Africa.
This report is divided into two sections. The first section is a collection of comprehensive and well-focused articles on agriculture in Africa guided by the uniqueness of the African Green Revolution Concept. The topics focus on factors that trigger smallholders’ agricultural transformation across the staple crop value chain; discussing factors of production, technology adoption, input-output markets, access to finance, policy environment, and institutional and human capacity building. The collection also considers partnership and leveraging of resources. The second section is a collation of both macro and micro data from 16 Sub-Saharan Africa countries that AGRA currently operates in. The micro data were provided by the ministries of agriculture and bureaus of statistics in the respective countries. The macro data came from institutions that track key indicators on a regular basis such as the World Bank and the Food and Agriculture Organization. The Report aims to foster an on-going data collection effort on key agriculture indicators that are tracked on a regular basis and reported on in subsequent publications moving forward.
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http://www.agra.org/download/5226fe87ea799