New research reports: Agricultural Dynamics and Food Security Trends

marketAfrica’s agriculture shows several signs of breakthroughs. As part of the Developmental Regimes in Africa (DRA) project, four case studies have been done about the most promising agricultural sectors in Nigeria, Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya (see reports below) concerning high production growth and substantial yield improvements since 2000. For each country four types of analysis are presented:

  • Agricultural production trends 1961-2011 (FAO agricultural statistics)
  • Food balance trends during this period, combining agricultural food production data with data on trade and con­sumption
  • High-growth agricultural products 2000-2010 (‘agricultural islands of effective­ness’)
  • Data on food security, based on child under-nutrition surveys, and (if available) trends.

The Research Reports include maps made available by the Centre for World Food Studies in Amsterdam. For each country, the report ends with sug­gestions for a follow-up research agenda and an inventory of useful sources.

Agro-food clustersAgricultural breakthroughs
The DRA project is a collaborative venture between the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) in the UK and the African Studies Centre in Leiden, and is funded by the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The analysis by researchers working at the ASC was done as part of the collaborative research project ‘Agro-Food Clusters in Africa’. Central hypothesis is that the current agricultural breakthroughs are mainly a result of growing purchasing power in Africa’s expanding metropolises, and better cluster institutions in and around these metropolises.

The reports can be read in open access:
Agricultural dynamics and food security trends in Nigeria, Akinyinka Akinyoade, Ton Dietz, Dick Foeken and Wijnand Klaver, DRA Research Report 2013-ASC-1, London/Leiden, November 2013

Agricultural dynamics and food security trends in Uganda, André Leliveld, Ton Dietz, Dick Foeken and Wijnand Klaver, Research Report 2013-ASC-2, London/Leiden, December 2013

Agricultural dynamics and food security trends in Tanzania, André Leliveld, Ton Dietz, Wijnand Klaver, Blandina Kilama and Dick Foeken, Research Report 2013-ASC-3, London/Leiden, December 2013

Agricultural dynamics and food security trends in Kenya, Ton Dietz, Dick Foeken, Sebastiaan Soeters, Wijnand Klaver, Research Report 2013-ASC-4, January 2014

Author(s) / editor(s)

ASC & Overseas Development Institute, UK

About the author(s) / editor(s)

Akinyinka Akinyoade (ASC) obtained a Doctoral degree in Development Studies with emphasis on Population and Rural Development at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS), The Hague. He was Country Coordinator Nigeria for the Tracking Development project that compared development trajectories of Nigeria and Indonesia.

Ton Dietz has been Director of the African Studies Centre in Leiden since 1 May 2010 and is Professor of the Study of African Development at Leiden University. Rural development, food security and agrohubs are a few of his research subjects.

Dick Foeken (ASC) is a human geographer. His main research interests are urban poverty, urban water supply and urban agriculture in Africa. He is currently involved in five research projects, of which 'Food security and the African city: clustering metropolitan food chains' is one.

Bilanda Kilama was a PhD candidate with the Tracking Development Project at the ASC, comparing the cashew industry in Tanzania with the one in Vietnam from 1960 to 2006. She now works as a researcher with Research on Poverty Alleviation (REPOA), a policy research institute based in Tanzania.

Wijnand Klaver (ASC) works as a researcher on food and nutrition issues, with a particular interest in the assessment of child growth and household food consumption. He is currently involved in a research project on urban agriculture in relation to household nutrition security in Nakuru, Kenya.

André Leliveld (ASC) is a development economist and does research on informal insurance and social-support systems and community-based (health) insurance schemes in Africa. Recently he has started to focus on structural transformation processes in African economies as well.

Sebastiaan Soeters is a former PhD student and project researcher at the ASC, focusing on urban food security. He is currently doing postdoctoral research at Utrecht University on inclusive climate change-related interventions with an emphasis on Burkina Faso, Ghana and Kenya.

Posted on 13 January 2014, last modified on 14 February 2014