Commercialising agriculture in Africa: economic, social and environmental impacts
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The previous Presidential Addresses at the AAAE (Oluoch-Kosura 2007; Adesina 2010) both set
out to tell a story about African agricultural development at large, rather than about one particular
aspect of the sector, or one particular part of Africa. Both, in other words, tried to give a bird’s-eye
view without generalising to the point where it becomes meaningless. In this address, I try to follow
in their footsteps. I start with a note on nomenclature: Africa is a large continent that is easily
recognisable on maps. Sub-Saharan Africa is only a part of Africa, and we should stop outsiders
using this as a descriptor of our continent. Furthermore, Africa is not a continent of HIV/AIDS,
coups d’état, weak states and corrupt governments. It has all of these, but is a big place that has a
lot of other, more positive, features. In this address I discuss elements of two issues that are
important to the future of agriculture across the continent: the ways in which the structure of
farming is expected to change over time, and the future shape of food retail. Section 3 concludes.