A group of leading African academics from various social science disciplines engage in an in-depth examination of the current food and agricultural crisis in Africa, touching on the causes, nature, scope and dynamics of the problem. They bring to the subject a new framework of analysis which successfully combines the generality of global approach with the specificity of empirically based case studies, carefully chosen to cover the different types of production systems in Africa. Concrete proposals for overcoming the continents food and agricultural crisis are made.

While the design of adjustment policies in the latter part of the 1980s has generally shown greater attention to their impact on growth and social implications, this book argues that several orthodox adjustment policies are still incongruent with long-term development in Africa. It goes on to discuss a development strategy which could lead to a much awaited economic recovery and improvement in social conditions in Africa in the 1990s drawing its conclusions from a general theoretical discussion and national case-studies.