Abstract:
During the past twenty years two major trends can be observed over large numbers of the countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The first Ls a stagnation or decline in crop production. This is reflected in the fact that the total volume of agricultural exports at th-e end of the 1970s was t4 same as at the beginning of the 1960s despite a 1.8% annual increase in overall world trade in the commodities involved during tha: parLod. A similar situation prevailed with the per capita production of Eood crops which just kept pace with population growth during the 196)s but has subsequently fallen well below the increase in population and has resulted in an increase in cereal imports from 1.2 million tons a year in 1961-63 to over 5 million tons a year in 1977-79.