Agricultural input business development in Africa: opportunities, issues and challenges

Abstract

Economic growth and poverty reduction in Africa can be achieved by enhancing the productivity and profitability of agriculture through the development of agricultural input sector. This paper reviews the current state of agricultural input production, marketing and consumption in Africa, with the goals of identifying primary business opportunities and constraints, risks and challenges from the private sector perspective. The paper also summarizes the major existing partnerships and initiatives in the agricultural input business sector in Africa, especially Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs), cooperatives and joint ventures in order to address the factors that impede agricultural input use in Africa and document best practices, lessons and challenges in fostering agricultural input business development in the region.