The Johns Hopkins Studies in Development

1 total work

The Economics of Agricultural Technology in Semiarid Sub-Saharan Africa

by John H. Sanders, etc., Barry I. Shapiro, and Sunder Ramaswamy

Published 1 January 1996

This work identifies factors responsible for the stagnation in food output per capita over the last 20 years. A strategy for increasing the effectiveness of future technological research and development is evaluated, using field studies and modelling from the major agroecological zones of crop production. The higher-input, yield-increasing strategy is examined from the perspective of risk, sustainability, and the impact on women. Alternative approaches to increasing output are also considered, such as through area expansion and livestock-crop integrated systems.