2004

Agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) can reduce poverty and engender sustainable economic growth through trade in developed domestic, regional, and global markets. Assistance should focus on providing small farmers with access to better transportation and communications infrastructure and production technology and on improving farmers, business skills. Donors can also help SSA become more effective in the multilateral trading system by building its capacity to develop policy, comply with standards, and form market linkages.

In this paper we evaluate the potential for agriculture-led sustainable economic growth and poverty reduction in rural SSA. We suggest regional and global markets for SSA’s agricultural products and recommend program designs for reducing poverty through agricultural trade.