lessons for the future

Africa stands at the dawn of a new era. In spite of the global financial meltdown and spiraling food prices, the continent has shown remarkable resilience. On the economic front, Africa has achieved remarkable progress in recent years. Reforms have opened up political and economic space for the private sector, including traders and farmers, and have allowed civil-society organizations to actively participate in national agriculture development. Eighteen countries in the region have maintained average economic growth of 5.5 percent per year during the past decade, while more than half of the continent's countries have recorded agricultural growth exceeding 4 percent during the past five years. Africa is moving toward social and political stability, albeit slowly. Africa's impressive gains, however, were not enough to compensatePART I Overview 1 1 Challenges for African Agriculture 3 PART I I Success Stories 27 2 The Cassava Transformation in West and Southern Africa 29 3 "Seeds of Success" in Retrospect: Hybrid Maize in Eastern and Southern Africa 71 4 Mali's White Revolution: Smallholder Cotton, 1960-2006 113 5 Are Horticultural Exports a Replicable Success Story? Evidence from Kenya and Cote dTvoire 163 6 Smallholder Dairying in Eastern Africa 209 7 Sustainable Soil Fertility Management Systems 262 PART III Lessons for the Future 321 8 Lessons from Past Successes 323 9 Implications for the Future 349 References 373 Contributors 421 Index 423PRIFPRI