Turning African Agriculture into a Business A Reader: A Reader

While successful contract-farming schemes exist for export crops, they remain rare for food crops. Greater involvement of the private sector in designing and implementing such food-crop commercialisation programmes could develop viable local food industries. Existing international financing facilities such as the Enhanced Private Sector Assistance (EPSA) for Africa should get full use. Whether Africa can unleash the potential of commercial agriculture in the coming decades also depends in no small part on the continuous and effective support of the international development community.

The findings summarised in this volume can serve as building blocks for further international discussions on fostering agro-based private-sector development and lifting smallholders out of poverty.