ABSTRACT
For many years, there have been concerns about the ability of Africa’s agricultural sector to feed the people of the continent (Binns 1994; McMaster 1992; Obia 1997; Okoth-Ogendo 1993; Raikes 1988). According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), while the output of crops and livestock in Africa increased in the 1990s, it did not keep pace with the population so that by 1998 agricultural production per capita had declined to 98 per cent of that in 1989-91 (Table 6.1). Moreover, the performance of the 16 countries of eastern and southern Africa was weaker than for the continent as a whole; the FAO estimate that total agricultural production rose only 6 per cent over the same period, and that per capita production in 1998 had dropped to only 87 per cent of that in 1989-91.
