Planning for innovation in African agriculture

Abstract

If farmers in Africa are to grow more food and raw materials, they will generally have to adopt new techniques. Many economists believe that profits will provide the incentive to employ these improved methods. There seems to be a good deal of evidence to show that poor peasant producers are, in fact, often extremely responsive to opportunities for gain once they are convinced that such opportunities really do exist. The coffee growers in East Africa and the cacao farmers of West Africa are cases in point.