MACMILLAN Africa's Agricultural Renaissance: From Paradox to Powerhouse

This book addresses the paradox between preponderance of hunger in a continent that is well endowed with fertile agricultural land, plenty of fresh water and a vibrant labor force. As some statistics show, close to 60% of arable land in the world is located in Africa which also has several rivers flowing in all seasons and plenty of underground water. The bulk of its labor force thrives on agriculture, yet the continent’s largest import item is food. 23 of 36 the most malnourished countries also belong in Africa. This has caused significant needless human suffering.  This book goes beyond providing the traditional framework of supplying policy recommendations to delivering an applied, innovative framework upon which policymakers, the private sector and international institutions can take clear and deliberate action to stimulate Africa's agricultural sector, thus responding to the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. Review Through his fascinating, must-read book for policy makers and development practitioners, Ayodele Odusola provides the golden alchemy that will propel Africa into emergence and sustainable development – whose main pressure point  is agriculture: a green and digital agriculture with perfect orchestration between this ecosystem’s agents, institutions, markets, and networks. When this symphony orchestra is played right, through a system of good governance, Africa’s road to prosperity is wide open. ―Abdoulaye  Mar DIEYE, United Nations Under Secretary General, and former UNDP Regional Director for Africa; and  former Director, UNDP  Bureau of Development Policy Support Dr. Odusola’s “Africa’s Agricultural Renaissance: From Paradox to Powerhouse” is a well-researched and well-written book on how Africa can effectively harness its incredible natural and environmental resources to reverse today’s vicious cycle of malnutrition, poverty, and underdevelopment. Dr. Odusola brilliantly shows how and where Africa made the wrong turns, squandered opportunities, and staggered into the present paradox.  This book examines how to unleash the agriculture sector’s trillion dollar capacity in a more inclusive, innovation-driven approach in an environmentally sensitive manner. I highly recommend this book as a useful companion for practitioners, academics, and policymakers to start a transition into an agriculture and food system that meets the demands of our time, without jeopardizing opportunities of the future generations. ―Fr. Godfrey Nzamujo O.P. (Prof of Engineering), Songhai Regional Center Through solid analysis, the book provides sound, targeted policy recommendations for African countries to utilize their abundant endowment of fertile land to develop agriculture for ending poverty and hunger and facilitating export, industrialization, and sustainable structural transformation. A timely publication for Africa’s realization of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. ―Professor Justin Yifu Lin, Dean, Institute of New Structural Economics, Peking University, Former Chief Economist, the World Bank This book should be carefully read and its recommendations pondered and implemented by all policy makers in Africa. It makes a compelling case for the use of agriculture for development in the face of massive under-investment in agriculture and enormous, unrealized potential in using it to achieve growth, poverty reduction, social inclusion, and sustainability in the face of climate change. For this, it provides an up-to-date diagnostic of the state of agriculture in Africa, reviews modern theories of how agriculture can be used for development, and gives a comprehensive agenda of interventions to make success possible. It anchors its recommendations on a set of detailed country case studies of successful practice in the use of agriculture for development in Asia, Latin America, and leading African nations. Recommendations go beyond how to achieve a Green Revolution for Africa to d