Agricultural Productivity, Social Organization and Economic Transformation in Rural Africa

While global poverty has fallen, a large population remains in extreme poverty, concentrated in rural Africa. The direct cause is low agricultural productivity, with few farmers using improved seeds, irrigation, fertilizer, or mechanization. The fact of low agricultural yields is pervasive across the region, but the mechanisms vary widely. Markets for output, land, labor, capital, inputs and risk are nowhere perfect, but the relevant frictions and the nonmarket institutions that farmers use to cope vary as well. I use examples from Mali, Nigeria, and Ghana to show how certain dimensions of social organization – while essential for coping with market failures – can inadvertently stifle growth and contribute to collective poverty traps.

This institutional diversity is layered upon a highly variable physical environment. Patchy soil quality, pests, poor infrastructure, and the risks of rain-fed farming create extreme heterogeneity. This makes it difficult for farmers to learn about new technologies and limits the impact of any single innovation. The result is technological stagnation and persistent rural poverty. Tellingly, this means the primary force improving living standards for the rural poor has not been an agricultural revolution, but a quiet reallocation out of small farm employment. 

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