Leslie Nyagah

Seeds for Growth. Financing Smallholder Farming in Southern Africa Leslie Nyagah

Marc Notes: Includes bibliographical references.; Seeds for Growth: Financing smallholder farming in southern Africa explores how governance and political decision-making about the allocation of resources could transform the smallholder agricultural landscape in southern Africa. It affirms the role smallholder agriculture can play in a national and regional political system in the pursuit of social and economic justice. The authors take a fresh look at the ways in which governments can allocate resources to the sector so that it achieves its potential to ensure food security, alleviate poverty and promote economic growth. This book challenges the us and them mentality and demonstrates the need to shift from the centralised policy-making and resource allocation, to a more integrated vision of governance, in which politically mature rural communities, together with their civil society partners, can support social and economic justice, and hold their governments accountable. It also examines how advocacy can support such a vision--Publisher description. Publisher Marketing: Poverty and hunger continue to be the biggest challenges in Africa, yet eight years into the Maputo Protocol, in which governments pledged to allocate 10 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture, this sector remains seriously underfunded. Seeds for Growth: Financing smallholder farming in southern Africa explores how governance and political decision making about the allocation of resources could transform the smallholder agricultural landscape in southern Africa. It affirms the role smallholder agriculture can play in the pursuit of social and economic justice. The authors take a fresh look at the ways in which governments could allocate resources to the sector in order to reshape it so that it achieves its potential to ensure food security, alleviate poverty and promote the economic growth of the region as a whole. This book demonstrates the need to shift from the current centralised policy-making and resource allocation, which is fundamentally undemocratic, to a more integrated vision of governance, in which politically mature rural communities, together with their civil society partners, can support social and economic justice.