We review the literature on the distribution of farm sizes in sub-Saharan Africa, trends over tim... more We review the literature on the distribution of farm sizes in sub-Saharan Africa, trends over time, drivers of change in farm structure, and effects on agricultural transformation and present new evidence for seven countries. While it is widely viewed that African agriculture is dominated by small-scale farms, we show that medium-scale farms of 5 to 100 hectares are a nontrivial—and rapidly expanding—force that is influencing the nature and pace of food systems transformation in Africa. The increased prevalence of medium-scale holdings is associated with farm labor productivity growth and underappreciated benefits to smallholder farmers. However, the rise of African investor farmers is also contributing to the commodification of land, escalating land prices, and restricted land access for most local people. A better understanding of these trends and linkages, which requires new data collection activities, could help resolve long-standing policy debates and support strategies that ac...
Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both c... more Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both cause and consequence of the economic transformations that the region is now experiencing. The rapid rise of emergent investor farms in the 5 to 100 hectare category represents a revolutionary change in Africa’s farm structure since 2000. The rise of investor farmers is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. In some areas, investor farms are a source of dynamism, technical change and commercialization of African agriculture. In densely populated areas, however, investor farms may be displacing the potential for agricultural land expansion of small-scale farming communities.
This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and emplo... more This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities using nationally representative and multi-year data from multiple African countries. We document evidence on the evolving dynamics in land distribution and ownership patterns, the effect of land access on youth livelihood choices and development of rental and sales market in the region. The report highlights six key findings: First, a progressively smaller proportion of young people are inheriting land due to land scarcity. Second, rural youth who do inherit land will need to wait longer to gain access to it because of significantly longer adult life spans. Third, land scarcity has been driving rapid changes in the land ownership and distribution patterns over the past decade and shaping the employment and migration decisions of rural youth. Fourth, the share of individual labour time devoted to farming is declining over time across age categories and gender, signifyi...
With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are tr... more With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are trying different approaches for minimizing their adverse environmental impacts. Among the approaches being used to revitalize campus sustainability efforts, new waste management strategies have included attempts to improve campus-recycling programs. This paper presents select findings from a comprehensive study at a large, Tier I university aimed at, among other
Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both c... more Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both cause and consequence of the economic transformations that the region is now experiencing. The rapid rise of emergent investor farms in the 5 to 100 hectare category represents a revolutionary change in Africa's farm structure since 2000. In most countries examined, the majority of medium-scale farms are owned by urban-based professionals or rural elites, many of whom are also public sector employees.
Youth and the rural economy in Africa: hard work and hazard
This chapter attempts to articulate why an understanding of rural youth livelihoods in sub-Sahara... more This chapter attempts to articulate why an understanding of rural youth livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa requires an appreciation of what is happening with land. The chapter (i) reviews available evidence on how young people access and use land; (ii) clarifies linkages between land access and other livelihood decisions and outcomes of interest; and (iii) identifies remaining knowledge gaps and discusses strategies for filling them.
Rapidly rising demand for food, fuelled by population and income growth, will provide major oppor... more Rapidly rising demand for food, fuelled by population and income growth, will provide major opportunities for agri-food systems to accelerate employment creation and transform African economies. Seizing these opportunities will require African agriculture to become more inclusive and profitable. Greater profits in farming will generate greater expenditures by millions of people in rural areas that fuel the transition to a more diversified and robust economy. Higher incomes for millions of households engaged in agriculture will expand the demand for goods and services – and therefore employment – in the non-farm economy, while also opening up new employment opportunities across all stages of agri-food systems. Making agriculture more profitable and inclusive will require public actions to reduce costs in farm production and agri-food systems, and address soil degradation, climate change, land scarcity and concentrated land ownership. The future of work in Africa will, therefore, depe...
Agri-food systems, including those in Africa, are complex and interdependent systems with the fol... more Agri-food systems, including those in Africa, are complex and interdependent systems with the following features: (1) they develop endogenously with broader demographic and economic changes in the broader economy, hence it is difficult or impossible to predict their specific growth and income distributional trajectories; (2) their future trajectories are highly dependent on policy choices and public investment patterns and hence can be molded by public action; (3) they evolve through interdependent decisions of many actors such that few emerging patterns can be linked to a particular agent within the system; and (4) the variables influencing their development change over time with the underlying structure of local, regional and international economic systems, and with changes in technologies and institutions. In this dynamic environment, notions of equilibrium may be very short-lived. Nevertheless, we believe that there are identifiable “megatrends” with a high probability of affect...
As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanizatio... more As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanization, gender equality, and nutrition―USAID’s Feed the Future Program hosted a series of Roundtable Discussions in early 2016. These meetings brought together a diverse set of specialists to identify new emerging issues and strategies for effectively achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Toward this end, Feed the Future assembled 44 academics and representatives of African governments, field-based youth programs and development organizations on May 17, 2016 in Washington, DC for the Youth & Employment Roundtable Symposium.
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dis... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Communicating with stakeholders and accounting for their worldviews in promoting sustainability at Michigan State University. ...
Using nationally representative data from nine African countries, we document sectoral employment... more Using nationally representative data from nine African countries, we document sectoral employment trends and consider the evolving role of agriculture in Africa’s economic transformation process. We highlight three key findings: a general decline in farming’s share of employment over the past decade; a strong relationship between lagged farm productivity growth and the speed at which the share of the labor force in farming declines; and the moderate potential for agro-processing or other stages of the food system to absorb youth into gainful employment in the coming years. While agro-processing is growing rapidly in percentage terms, its share of overall employment is quite low and hence will not generate nearly as many new jobs as farming. For these reasons, strategies that effectively raise the returns to labor in farming will be critical to fostering successful economic transformation.
Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Community Sustainability-Doctor of Philosophy 2014.%%%%R... more Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Community Sustainability-Doctor of Philosophy 2014.%%%%Researchers, resource managers, and development practitioners increasingly recognize the value of integrating the input and preferences of stakeholders into decision-making processes. Increasing participation of stakeholders in policy decision-making is generally considered favorable since it helps account for public concerns, reduces conflicts, increases public acceptance of and compliance with the resultant program rules, and enhances the overall effectiveness and achievement of program objectives. As part of efforts to improve program planning and foster achievement of program objectives, this dissertation explores the perspectives and preferences of key stakeholders regarding the design of two programs: Ghana's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program known as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program (LEAP) and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) in Michigan. ...
Most efforts to raise fertilizer use in SSA over the past decade have focused on fertilizer subsi... more Most efforts to raise fertilizer use in SSA over the past decade have focused on fertilizer subsidies and targeted credit programmes with hopes that these programmes could later be withdrawn once the profitability of fertilizer use has been made clear to adopting farmers and once they have become sufficiently capitalized to be able to afford fertilizer on their own. This line of reasoning under-emphasizes the evidence that many smallholder farmers obtain very low crop response rates to inorganic fertilizer application and hence cannot use it profitably at full market prices. A central hypothesis of this study is that Ghanaian farmers will demand increasing quantities of fertilizer when they can utilize it more profitably, and that doing so will require improved agronomic and soil management practices that enable farmers to achieve higher crop response rates to fertilizer application.
We review the literature on the distribution of farm sizes in sub-Saharan Africa, trends over tim... more We review the literature on the distribution of farm sizes in sub-Saharan Africa, trends over time, drivers of change in farm structure, and effects on agricultural transformation and present new evidence for seven countries. While it is widely viewed that African agriculture is dominated by small-scale farms, we show that medium-scale farms of 5 to 100 hectares are a nontrivial—and rapidly expanding—force that is influencing the nature and pace of food systems transformation in Africa. The increased prevalence of medium-scale holdings is associated with farm labor productivity growth and underappreciated benefits to smallholder farmers. However, the rise of African investor farmers is also contributing to the commodification of land, escalating land prices, and restricted land access for most local people. A better understanding of these trends and linkages, which requires new data collection activities, could help resolve long-standing policy debates and support strategies that ac...
Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both c... more Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both cause and consequence of the economic transformations that the region is now experiencing. The rapid rise of emergent investor farms in the 5 to 100 hectare category represents a revolutionary change in Africa’s farm structure since 2000. The rise of investor farmers is affecting the region in diverse ways that are difficult to generalize. In some areas, investor farms are a source of dynamism, technical change and commercialization of African agriculture. In densely populated areas, however, investor farms may be displacing the potential for agricultural land expansion of small-scale farming communities.
This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and emplo... more This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities using nationally representative and multi-year data from multiple African countries. We document evidence on the evolving dynamics in land distribution and ownership patterns, the effect of land access on youth livelihood choices and development of rental and sales market in the region. The report highlights six key findings: First, a progressively smaller proportion of young people are inheriting land due to land scarcity. Second, rural youth who do inherit land will need to wait longer to gain access to it because of significantly longer adult life spans. Third, land scarcity has been driving rapid changes in the land ownership and distribution patterns over the past decade and shaping the employment and migration decisions of rural youth. Fourth, the share of individual labour time devoted to farming is declining over time across age categories and gender, signifyi...
With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are tr... more With increasing environmental challenges confronting our planet, colleges and universities are trying different approaches for minimizing their adverse environmental impacts. Among the approaches being used to revitalize campus sustainability efforts, new waste management strategies have included attempts to improve campus-recycling programs. This paper presents select findings from a comprehensive study at a large, Tier I university aimed at, among other
Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both c... more Sub-Saharan Africa is experiencing major changes in farm land ownership and use, which are both cause and consequence of the economic transformations that the region is now experiencing. The rapid rise of emergent investor farms in the 5 to 100 hectare category represents a revolutionary change in Africa's farm structure since 2000. In most countries examined, the majority of medium-scale farms are owned by urban-based professionals or rural elites, many of whom are also public sector employees.
Youth and the rural economy in Africa: hard work and hazard
This chapter attempts to articulate why an understanding of rural youth livelihoods in sub-Sahara... more This chapter attempts to articulate why an understanding of rural youth livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa requires an appreciation of what is happening with land. The chapter (i) reviews available evidence on how young people access and use land; (ii) clarifies linkages between land access and other livelihood decisions and outcomes of interest; and (iii) identifies remaining knowledge gaps and discusses strategies for filling them.
Rapidly rising demand for food, fuelled by population and income growth, will provide major oppor... more Rapidly rising demand for food, fuelled by population and income growth, will provide major opportunities for agri-food systems to accelerate employment creation and transform African economies. Seizing these opportunities will require African agriculture to become more inclusive and profitable. Greater profits in farming will generate greater expenditures by millions of people in rural areas that fuel the transition to a more diversified and robust economy. Higher incomes for millions of households engaged in agriculture will expand the demand for goods and services – and therefore employment – in the non-farm economy, while also opening up new employment opportunities across all stages of agri-food systems. Making agriculture more profitable and inclusive will require public actions to reduce costs in farm production and agri-food systems, and address soil degradation, climate change, land scarcity and concentrated land ownership. The future of work in Africa will, therefore, depe...
Agri-food systems, including those in Africa, are complex and interdependent systems with the fol... more Agri-food systems, including those in Africa, are complex and interdependent systems with the following features: (1) they develop endogenously with broader demographic and economic changes in the broader economy, hence it is difficult or impossible to predict their specific growth and income distributional trajectories; (2) their future trajectories are highly dependent on policy choices and public investment patterns and hence can be molded by public action; (3) they evolve through interdependent decisions of many actors such that few emerging patterns can be linked to a particular agent within the system; and (4) the variables influencing their development change over time with the underlying structure of local, regional and international economic systems, and with changes in technologies and institutions. In this dynamic environment, notions of equilibrium may be very short-lived. Nevertheless, we believe that there are identifiable “megatrends” with a high probability of affect...
As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanizatio... more As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanization, gender equality, and nutrition―USAID’s Feed the Future Program hosted a series of Roundtable Discussions in early 2016. These meetings brought together a diverse set of specialists to identify new emerging issues and strategies for effectively achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Toward this end, Feed the Future assembled 44 academics and representatives of African governments, field-based youth programs and development organizations on May 17, 2016 in Washington, DC for the Youth & Employment Roundtable Symposium.
UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dis... more UMI, ProQuest ® Dissertations & Theses. The world's most comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses. Learn more... ProQuest, Communicating with stakeholders and accounting for their worldviews in promoting sustainability at Michigan State University. ...
Using nationally representative data from nine African countries, we document sectoral employment... more Using nationally representative data from nine African countries, we document sectoral employment trends and consider the evolving role of agriculture in Africa’s economic transformation process. We highlight three key findings: a general decline in farming’s share of employment over the past decade; a strong relationship between lagged farm productivity growth and the speed at which the share of the labor force in farming declines; and the moderate potential for agro-processing or other stages of the food system to absorb youth into gainful employment in the coming years. While agro-processing is growing rapidly in percentage terms, its share of overall employment is quite low and hence will not generate nearly as many new jobs as farming. For these reasons, strategies that effectively raise the returns to labor in farming will be critical to fostering successful economic transformation.
Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Community Sustainability-Doctor of Philosophy 2014.%%%%R... more Thesis Ph. D. Michigan State University. Community Sustainability-Doctor of Philosophy 2014.%%%%Researchers, resource managers, and development practitioners increasingly recognize the value of integrating the input and preferences of stakeholders into decision-making processes. Increasing participation of stakeholders in policy decision-making is generally considered favorable since it helps account for public concerns, reduces conflicts, increases public acceptance of and compliance with the resultant program rules, and enhances the overall effectiveness and achievement of program objectives. As part of efforts to improve program planning and foster achievement of program objectives, this dissertation explores the perspectives and preferences of key stakeholders regarding the design of two programs: Ghana's conditional cash transfer (CCT) program known as Livelihood Empowerment Against Poverty program (LEAP) and the Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program (CREP) in Michigan. ...
Most efforts to raise fertilizer use in SSA over the past decade have focused on fertilizer subsi... more Most efforts to raise fertilizer use in SSA over the past decade have focused on fertilizer subsidies and targeted credit programmes with hopes that these programmes could later be withdrawn once the profitability of fertilizer use has been made clear to adopting farmers and once they have become sufficiently capitalized to be able to afford fertilizer on their own. This line of reasoning under-emphasizes the evidence that many smallholder farmers obtain very low crop response rates to inorganic fertilizer application and hence cannot use it profitably at full market prices. A central hypothesis of this study is that Ghanaian farmers will demand increasing quantities of fertilizer when they can utilize it more profitably, and that doing so will require improved agronomic and soil management practices that enable farmers to achieve higher crop response rates to fertilizer application.
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Papers by Felix Yeboah