Integrated Policies for an Agricultural Revolution in the Sahel

Here's a link to a paper I wrote a few months ago for a policy competition. I wrote it while I was reading "A History of World Agriculture" by Marcel Mazoyer and Laurence Roudart. This is an excellent book on the evolution of agricultural systems, mainly focusing on the Western world. Anyway, when I wrote the policy paper I was very much under the influence of this book and its macro-scale vision of agricultural change over large areas and long time periods. Looking at it again now, I see that my paper has a very technocratic, top-down vision. This is understandable, as it is a presentation of general ideas and guidelines for national- and regional-level agrarian policy. However, I sort of cringe to see that my proposals are not too different from those advanced by the corporate-driven AGRA, Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, which seems to prioritize increasing the sales of African and international agricultural input suppliers as much as it aims for poverty reduction in Africa.

In my paper, I don't talk about addressing land inequalities, preserving or respecting long-standing traditions or minor crops, looking at women's special role in Sahelian farming, etc. In short, I gloss over all the details and differences that make a place what it is, in my rush to propose wide-reaching, universal actions. I hope to redress these shortcomings of the paper in a new proposal that I've been thinking about for a long time. This proposal will also lay out a more detailed vision of how my large-scale policy outlines can be implemented on the ground, responding to diverse local realities. So anyway, for my audience of two readers or so, the forthcoming new Sahel proposal is something to look forward to.