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Increasing
resilience and reducing vulnerability in sub-Saharan African
agriculture: Strategies for risk coping and management
Chuku A. Chuku1* and Chidinma
Okoye2
1Department
of Economics, University of Uyo, P.M.B 1017, Uyo, Nigeria.
2Central
Bank of Nigeria, Abuja, Nigeria.
*Corresponding author. E-mail:
chukuachuku@gmail.com.
Accepted 7 December, 2009 |
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The agricultural sector in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
continues to be confronted with multiple shocks and crises,
threatening the endowments of the sector and impeding
efforts at attaining the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
in the region via the sector. We note that shocks to the
agricultural sector are precipitated by a system of
multiscalar stressors. These include; climate change,
natural disasters, volatility of commodity prices, regional
conflicts, policy shocks and the effects of globalization.
These stressors interact in complex and messy ways to
increase the vulnerability and reduce the resilience of
agricultural agents to crises. This paper presents a
descriptive and distinctive framework on the concepts of
vulnerability, resilience, adaptive capacity and risks in
agriculture, putting sub-Saharan Africa in context. In
addition, the paper identifies four broad domains of
opportunities available to farm agents to use risk coping
and management strategies to increase their resilience and
reduce their vulnerability to shocks and crises. They
include; income and asset management strategies, farm
production strategies, government programmes and support
strategies and technological development strategies. Drawing
from the experiences of developed countries and the
information obtained from workshops and research works
conducted in SSA, we identify policy directions that require
urgent attention in reducing the vulnerability and
increasing the resilience of SSA agricultural agents.
Key words:
Vulnerability, risk coping, risk management, agriculture,
crises, sub-Saharan Africa. |
