Brief

Transforming Agriculture in Africa & Asia: What are the policy priorities?

This report uses a first-of-its kind analytical framework that tracks the performance of 117 countries over 45 years to understand which agricultural policies have succeeded or failed.

By Kieran McDougal, Carin Smaller, David Laborde, Tess Lallemant, Fousseini Traore on October 10, 2018

Successfully eradicating poverty through agriculture depends on whether a country has enough agricultural land, how fertile it is, and the demographic pressures.

That is the key finding of new research by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD). This report, Transforming Agriculture in Africa and Asia: What are the policy priorities? uses a first-of-its kind analytical framework that tracks the performance of 117 countries over 45 years to understand which policies have succeeded or failed.

Key findings:

  • Agricultural transformation takes off when countries remove price policies that penalize agriculture.
  • Public investment in research, extension services, electricity and irrigation are important, but the quality of those services can matter more than the quantity.
  • Land reforms, research institutions and improving access to credit are also critical, but ultimately no country succeeds without a combination of policies and public investments that complement each other.

Participating experts

Brief details

Topic
Food and Agriculture
Focus area
Economies
Publisher
IISD
Copyright
IISD, 2018