Harry Verhoeven on agricultural development in Africa
Harry Verhoeven co-authored a comment article at CNN (05 July, 2012) on how African agriculture is the key battlefront in tackling hunger and poverty.
Harry writes, “the fata morgana [desert mirage] nature of agricultural development in Africa calls for a serious re-examination of how the continent's farmers can move from being among the main victims of global hunger to becoming more productive cultivators of the commodities that Africa and the world sorely need.”
Harry presents a snapshot of developments in African agriculture and the debate between agro-business, international financial institutions and governments of emerging powers on one side, and NGOs and sceptical academics on the other.
He examines in detail the Sudan case study in order to find out what is really happening on the ground. For the moment at least, behind all the hype, there is a “botched agricultural revolution.”
The full article can be read here.
