Africa’s Changing Farmland Ownership: Causes and Consequences
July 26-28, 2015
San Francisco, CA
The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) and Western Agricultural Economics Association (WAEA) hosted a joint annual meeting in 2015. Professionals and students in the field of agricultural and applied economics had the opportunity to present research, learn about the latest trends and network.
“Africa’s Changing Farmland Ownership: Causes and Consequences”. Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both cause and consequence of the economic transformations that the region is now experiencing. The rapid rise of emergent investor farms in the 5 to 100 hectare category represents a revolutionary change in Africa’s farm structure since 2000. The rise of investor farmers is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. In some areas, investor farms are a source of dynamism, technical change and commercialization of African agriculture. In densely populated areas, however, investor farms may be displacing the potential for agricultural land expansion of small-scale farming communities.
“Africa’s Changing Farmland Ownership: Causes and Consequences” presentation was based on a collaborative paper under the title, “Africa’s changing farm size distribution patterns: the rise of medium-scale farms“. The co-authors represented Michigan State University, ReNAPRI, University of Pretoria and University of Zambia.
Download the presentation here.