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Looking like an Industry: Supporting Commercial Agriculture in Africa

Author

Listed:
  • Ishac Diwan

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

  • Olivier Gaddah
  • Rosie Osire

    (Center for International Development at Harvard University)

Abstract

It has long been known that countries only converge conditionally i.e. poor countries catch up with richer ones only if they adopt policies and institutions that are conducive to economic growth. Recently, Dani Rodrik (2011) has shown that manufacturing industries, unlike countries, converge unconditionally. We look at countries' performance in agriculture and find that agricultural productivity actually shows unconditional divergence (and like GDP, conditional converge). This means that agriculture very much behaves like a country and not like industry. We find however that many crops do converge unconditionally, like industry. The question we then ask is: how can we make particular sectors in agriculture more like an "industry" and less like a "country?" The paper argues that the solution lies in finding business models that provide capital and access to missing markets in an aggregated fashion, thus forming high-productivity islands of quality. We provide examples and a discussion of promising business models that do that.

Suggested Citation

  • Ishac Diwan & Olivier Gaddah & Rosie Osire, 2013. "Looking like an Industry: Supporting Commercial Agriculture in Africa," CID Working Papers 266, Center for International Development at Harvard University.
  • Handle: RePEc:cid:wpfacu:266
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Holger Matthey & Jacinto F. Fabiosa & Frank H. Fuller, 2004. "Brazil: The Future of Modern Agriculture?," Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) Publications 04-mbp6, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
    2. Dani Rodrik, 2011. "The future of economic convergence," Proceedings - Economic Policy Symposium - Jackson Hole, Federal Reserve Bank of Kansas City, pages 13-52.
    3. Holger Matthey & Jacinto F. Fabiosa & Frank H. Fuller, 2004. "Brazil: The Future of Modern Agriculture?," Midwest Agribusiness Trade Research and Information Center (MATRIC) Publications (archive only) 04-mbp6, Center for Agricultural and Rural Development (CARD) at Iowa State University.
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    Cited by:

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    Keywords

    Commercial Agriculture; Africa;

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