Markets For The Poor


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Making Markets work in Africa

by Dr Akin Adesina

This is a presentation made at the meeting of the Millennium Hunger Development Goal (MDG) for Africa held in Addis Ababa Ethiopia on 5 July 2004. The full text of his speech can be found in

http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/html/addis/adesinaspeech2.pdf

Adesina said, "We are at a defining moment in Africa. Africa has about 250 million people – about the size of the US - living below the poverty line of one US dollar a day. Majority of them live in rural areas and cultivate small farms. Unfortunately, they cannot produce enough to feed themselves and their households due to lack of access to agricultural technologies. While national and international agricultural research centres have produced several technologies with potential to help end hunger, many of these technologies remain on the shelves due to poor functioning of input markets and ineffective and inefficient extension systems.

"But ask poor farmers today in Africa what their main problem is. They will always say "bad markets". It seems the challenge facing African farmers is not so much the absence of science that can help improve their productivity. In many cases, the appropriate technologies are there.

"The major problem has to do with the failure of markets. This undermines the capacity of poor farmers to use available or prospective technologies. It is clear, therefore, that unless we make greater progress in "making markets work", the Africa green revolution will become elusive."

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