Agricultural Economics in Africa: Trends in Theory and Method
Explicit theory about the process of economic development is notoriously scanty and underdeveloped.** Thus this paper will deal as much with emerging challenges to implicit theorizing and neglected areas in explicit theory as with trends in what explicit theory exists. Although the state of economic theory relevant to the agricultural sector of developing countries still leaves much to be desired, there have been some fascinating trends in the last ten years. Over the same period there have been fundamental changes in methodology as well. The central focus of those concerned with the course of economic change in developing economies is consideration of how the rate of economic development can be effectively increased and maintained. Economists working on the agricultural sector are most interested in theory that deals either with the relationship between change in the agricultural sector and change elsewhere in the economy, or with means of accelerating and sustaining development of the agricultural sector itself, of interest not only because the course of events in agriculture affects aggregate development but also because satisfactory progress in agriculture contributes to national goals other than development. Agricultural development affects development in other sectors of the economy in several ways: through provision of goods and services needed elsewhere in the economy and for export; through generation of rural purchasing power which can be a critical component of the stimuli needed to evoke satisfactory rates of development of other sectors; and through generation of savings, investment, and manpower needed elsewhere. Agricultural
The Spread of Economic Doctrines and Policymaking in Postcolonial Africa
Editors’ note: An earlier version of this article was presented as the inaugural African Studies Review Distinguished Lecture at the 54th Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association in Washington, D.C. Abstract: This article looks at the relationship between economic ideas and policymaking in Africa over the last half century. It discusses the ways in which the focus of economists working on Africa has moved from the structuralist-developmentalist and neo-Marxist perspectives of the 1960s and 1970s, through a neoliberal phase of the 1980s and 1990s, to a more eclectic combination of neo-institutionalism, growth orientation, and welfarist interests in poverty and redistribution issues. These shifts in development thinking, while not unique to Africa, have not been the subject of much debate in Africa. The article argues that such a debate is long overdue, including an interrogation not only of the leverage of foreign interests, but also of the profession of economics itself and the implications of its material underpinnings and social construction on the integrity and credibility of its research. Résumé: Cet article porte sur la relation entre les idées économiques et l’élaboration des réglementations en Afrique au cours du dernier demi-siècle. Il examine la façon dont l’attention des économistes travaillant en Afrique s’est détournée des perspectives structuralistes-développementalistes et néo-marxistes des années 60 et 70, en passant par une phase néo-libérale dans les années 80 et 90, pour se pencher sur une combinaison plus éclectique comprenant une approche néo-institutionnaliste, une orientation sur la croissance, une politique d’allocations pour les plus démunis, et un intérêt sur les questions de redistribution. Ces changements dans la pensée du développement, tout en n’étant pas propres à l’Afrique, n’ont pas fait l’objet de beaucoup de débats sur le continent. L’article soutient qu’il est grand temps d’avoir ce débat, et de s’interroger sur l’effet de levier des intérêts étrangers, sur la profession même de l’économie, sur les conséquences de ses bases matérielles et sur la construction sociale de l’intégrité et la crédibilité des travaux de recherche la concernant.
The Cost of Subsistence
LABORATE investigations have been made of the adequacy of diets at various income levels, and a considerable number of "low-cost," "moderate," and "expensive" diets have been recommended to consumers. Yet, so far as I know, no one has determined the minimum cost of obtaining the amounts of calories, protein, minerals, and vitamins which these studies accept as adequate or optimum. This will be done in the present paper, not only for its own interest but because it sheds much light on the meaning of conventional "low-cost" diets. This paper is organized under five headings, devoted to 1. The quantities of the various nutrients which should be contained in an average person's diet. 2. The quantities of these nutrients which are found in certain common foods.