State Fragility and African Agriculture

This paper examines the characteristics of African development that have emerged from the conventional approach to looking at agriculture as a contributor to development. The consequences of examining African agriculture and identifying its characteristics variously as a sectoral contribution to GDP, a provider of employment and its ability to support a rural population, the source of food and raw materials, and the site of entrepreneurial skill, will all be analysed.

The prognosis that emerges from this established perspective is that African agriculture has not been very successful in ensuring economic development. With regard to the relationship between agriculture and security, a more recent set of paradigms that focus on agriculture as a site, rather than a source, have emerged, and this paper examines how these provide new opportunities to examine agriculture security linkages to reduce contexts of state fragility.

Paper prepared for the Conference on “Moving Towards the European Report on Development 2009”, organised by the European Report of Development in Florence, Italy, 21-23 June, 2009.

European Report on Development 2009

Supported by the European Commission and seven Member States (Finland, France, Germany, Luxembourg, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom), the European Report on Development (ERD) is the main output of the "Mobilising European Research for Development Policies" initiative. This flagship report is published since 2009, with the aim of stimulating debate and research on topics of major relevance for development, as well as to enhance the European perspective in the international development arena.