Agricultural Development Spending in Africa

Agricultural Development Spending in Africa

Public Spending on Agriculture
In 1981, public spending on agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa was $1,196,000,000 (measured in 2000 dollars). In 1991, it had grown slightly to $1,365,000,000, and by 2000, it had inched up to $1,461,000,000. Using these numbers, annual growth of agricultural spending in Sub-Saharan Africa was 1.25% from 1981-1991 and 0.82% from 1991-2000, or 0.99% for the entire 1981-2000 period. As of 2005, spending on Sub-Saharan Africa's agricultural research and extension was estimated at $2.5 billion per year.

However, while the absolute value of ag spending increased in Sub-Saharan Africa increased throughout the 1980s and 1990s, the value of ag spending as a percent of agricultural GDP declined from 0.84 in 1981 to 0.79 in 1991 to 0.72 in 2000. Measured per capita in 2000 US dollars, ag spending in Sub-Saharan Africa declined from 3.1 in 1981 to 2.7 in 1991 to 2.3 in 2000.

The World Bank's 2008 World Development Report also provides a plethora of data, although most provides only a comparison of "Agriculture-based," "Transforming," and "Urbanized" countries, not a regional comparison. However, these categories mostly fall along regional lines, with Sub-Saharan Africa making up much of the Agriculture-based category. In the report, Table 1.3 compares public spending on agriculture among three groups of countries - Agriculture-Based (14 countries, of which 12 are in Sub-Saharan Africa), Transforming Countries (from a sample of 12 countries) and Urbanized Countries (using data from 11 countries). Whereas, between 1980 and 2004, public spending on agriculture as a share of public spending decreased from 6.9% to 4.0% in Agriculture-Based countries, it declined from 14.3% to 7.0% in Transforming Countries and from 8.1% to 2.7% in Urbanized countries. However, during these same years, when public spending on agriculture is viewed as a share of agricultural GDP, the Agriculture-Based countries go from 3.7 to 4.0%, Transforming Countries from 10.2% to 10.6% and Urbanized Countries from 16.9% to 12.1%.

Foreign Aid for Agricultural Development
According to the World Bank:
 * "The share of agriculture in official development assistance (ODA) declined sharply over the past two decades, from a high of about 18 percent in 1979 to 3.5 percent in 2004. It also declined in absolute terms, from a high of about $8 billion (2004 US$) in 1984 to $3.4 billion in 2004. The bigger decline was from the multilateral financial institutions, especially the World Bank. In the late 1970s and early 1980s the bulk of agricultural ODA went to Asia, especially India, in support of the green revolution, although this declined dramatically thereafter. Total ODA to agriculture in Africa increased somewhat in the 1980s, but it is now back to its 1975 level of about $1.2 billion. This decline in attention to agriculture is all the more striking because it happened in the face of rising rural poverty."

According to a table accompanying the above quote, aid to Asia was maintained at around $4 billion from the late 1970s through the early 1980s, when it peaked at just over $4 billion. During this time, aid to Africa grew from over $1 billion in 1975 to the mid-$2 billion range throughout the first half of the 1980s, then peaked above $3 billion in the second half of the decade before falling off. By the early 1990s, aid to Africa was again below $2 billion, where it remained and continued to drop closer to $1 billion through 2005.

Related SourceWatch Articles

 * Comprehensive Africa Agriculture Development Programme
 * New Partnership for Africa's Development (NEPAD)
 * African Union
 * Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa (FARA)
 * USAID Promotion of Agricultural Biotechnology
 * U.S. State Department Promotion of Agricultural Biotechnology

External Resources

 * World Bank, World Development Report 2008: Agriculture for Development.
 * Philip G. Pardey, Julian M. Alston, and Roley R. Piggot, eds, "Agricultural R&D in the developing world: Too little, too late?," IFPRI, 2006.