AFRICA’S AGRICULTURAL POTENTIAL Lessons from African countries on private investment and value addition

Abstract

Africa has enormous agricultural potential to eliminate hunger and poverty. This potential lies in the fertile land and abundant water, human, and natural resources as well as rapidly expanding markets. Historically, Africa’s agricultural investment models have been based on harnessing small-scale indigenous farming, but output from these models are unlikely to increase production at the national level. However, many of the large scale private agricultural investments made by overseas operators have often been exploitative rather than cooperative. This paper examines Africa’s agricultural potential and value largely based on secondary literature. The paper further highlights two contrasting case studies in Morocco and Ethiopia.