Synonyms
Introduction
Agriculture employs two-thirds of Sub-Saharan Africa’s (SSA) workforce and a majority of the continent’s poor (IFPRI 2004). As a result, agricultural productivity growth offers a singularly powerful lever for raising incomes and reducing poverty across the continent (Thirtle et al. 2003; de Janvry and Sadoulet 2010; Christiaensen et al. 2010). Recent estimates from Kenya and Rwanda, for example, indicate that a 1% increase in national income coming from the agricultural sector leads to three to four times as much poverty reduction as comparable income gains in nonagricultural sectors of the economy (Diao et al. 2012).
Agricultural growth is, likewise, a key driver of economic growth and structural transformation. Because agriculture accounts for 25% of Sub-Saharan Africa’s gross domestic product, and up to 50% in poor countries, productivity gains in agriculture translate directly into broad-based per capita income gains (IFPRI 2004; Diao et...
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Haggblade, S. (2019). Sub-Saharan African Agriculture. In: Kaplan, D.M. (eds) Encyclopedia of Food and Agricultural Ethics. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-024-1179-9_245
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