Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant : Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond

By Michael L. Morris, G. Larson. 2009

272 citations recorded by the source corpus.

This report summarizes the findings of the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa (CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and growth in African agriculture through the identification of products and production systems that can underpin rapid development of a competitive commercial agriculture. The CCAA study focused on the agricultural potential of Africa's Guinea Savannah zone, which covers about 600 million hectares in Africa, of which about 400 million hectares can be used for agriculture, and of which less than 10 percent are cropped. The African Guinea Savannah is one of the largest underused agricultural land reserves in the world. In terms of its agro climatic features, the land is similar to that found in the Cerrado region of Brazil and in the Northeast Region of Thailand, with medium-to-high agricultural potential but also significant constraints in the form of infertile soils and variable rainfall. Based on a careful examination of the factors that contributed to the successes achieved in Brazil and Thailand, as well as comparative analysis of evidence obtained through detailed case studies of three African (Mozambique, Nigeria, and Zambia) countries. This report argues that opportunities abound for farmers in Africa to regain international competitiveness, especially in light of projected stronger demand in world markets for agricultural commodities over the long term.

Subfields: Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics, General Agricultural and Biological Sciences

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/bd6f359e02dfdcfab9614b7884d3e1ec096297ff

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In Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics

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Citations in the corpus

Agricultural labour productivity, food prices and sustainable development impacts and indicators (2013, background): “However continued expansion of cultivated areas is problematic in most parts of the world due to (a) environmental and sustainability problems with cultivation in marginal and forested land and (b) shortages of other fertile and well watered land (for example Hazell and Wood, 2008; Foresight, 2011),”
Can sub-Saharan Africa feed itself? (2016, background): “World Bank (2009) Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond (World Bank, Washington, DC), p 4.”
Introduction to the Special Issue: Water Grabbing? Focus on the (Re)appropriation of Finite Water Resources (2012, background): “Africa is considered to be a 'sleeping giant' with an abundance of water and land, ready to be woken up by commercial agriculture (World Bank, 2009).”
Governing Global Land Deals: The Role of the State in the Rush for Land (2013, background): “Instead, many states are active, calculating partners in land deals, negotiating the costs and benefits of the contemporary moment in order to maximize returns on what are considered marginal lands or marginal even political corruption (Morris et al., 2009).”
The (Evolving) Role of Agriculture in Poverty Reduction: An Empirical Perspective (2011, background): “12 For more in-depth analysis and suggestions on how agriculture could be advanced in sub-Saharan Africa, see InterAcademy Council (2004) and Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant (World Bank 2009a).”
Trade-offs between environment and livelihoods: Bridging the global land use and food security discussions (2017, unknown): “…to provide wage labor income, and to achieve integration in retail value chains towards domestic and export markets, such as evidenced in Thailand (Morris et al. 2009), Kenya (Neven et al. 2009), Senegal (Maertens et al. 2009, Maertens et al. 2012), Mozambique (Smart and Hanlon 2014), or…”
Sustainable Livelihoods and Rural Development (2015, background): “Drawing on the example of large-scale commercial agricultural policies, especially those which aim to ‘awaken the sleeping giant of Africa’ (Morris et al., 2009), Scoones reveals the multi-scalar coalition of interests, actors, and organizations that come together in reinforcing a particular ‘expert”