Introduction to Microeconomics
This module is an introductory course that introduces students to a wide range of economic concepts. The module focuses on how economic systems operate to allocate resources, distribute income, and organize production through the decisions of individual economic agents such as households, firms and consumers. The module focuses on the operation of a market economy where markets determine... more
Agriculture for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa
Agriculture is growing in Subsaharan Africa (SSA), but the growth is precarious. In most countries, it has yet to reach the sustained 6% annual rate estimated by NEPAD as necessary to meet the Millennium Development Goal of cutting poverty in half by 2015. Growth needs to be accelerated, secured and used more effectively to promote broadly shared development. This requires two elements. The... more
Economic Shifts in Agricultural Production and Trade due to Climate Change
In addition to expanding agricultural land area and intensifying crop yields, increasing the global trade of agricultural products is one mechanism that humanity has adopted to meet the nutritional demands of a growing population. However, climate change will affect the distribution of agricultural production and, therefore, food supply and global markets. Here we quantify the structural... more
Evaluation of Policies Promoting Sustainable Agriculture in South Africa
South Africa will require the establishment of a formal inclusive policy on sustainable agricultural practices. This will not only assist the country in avoiding further exploitation of the natural environment, but will also position agricultural extension in promoting the five pillars of sustainable agriculture. A comprehensive review using conceptual reflection presented in this paper... more
Financing Emerging Black Farmers for Agricultural Development in South Africa: A Wasteful and Unworkable Model for Creating Black Farmers
The purpose of this article is to investigate the effectiveness of the model used by the South African government to finance emerging black farmers for agricultural development and empowerment. It is widely acknowledged that the South African government spends a vast amount of money attempting to help black community members become commercial farmers. In this article, I argue that those who... more
Food Security, Wheat Production and Policy in South Africa: Reflections on Food Sustainability and Challenges for a Market Economy
The traditional concept of security has broadened over the past decades. Food security in South Africa is an imperative for human and non-human survival. In the contemporary political economy, there is a real nexus between globalisation, exploitation, the state, scarcity of resources, the market, peoples’ need to feel secure, notions of state responsibility and food production. Political... more
Climate Smart Agriculture? Governing the Sustainable Development Goals in Sub-Saharan Africa
This paper examines the political economic and governance challenges faced by African governments in operationalizing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) as part of their pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is a need to enrich our understanding of the diverse contexts and ways in which governments will have to navigate and address the inevitable choices and... more
Imperatives for an Agricultural Green Economy in South Africa
Globally, there are social, economic and environmental challenges related to sustainable development; these challenges include climate change, the need to feed a rapidly increasing population, high rates of poverty and environmental degradation. These challenges have forced us to rethink the way in which development takes place, resulting in the emergence of the concept of a ‘green economy... more
Agricultural Sector Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Growth in Ghana
The study seeks to establish the relationship between foreign direct investment to Ghana’s agriculture sector and economic growth with secondary data mainly sourced from the World Development Indicator. The techniques employed to analyse the data include descriptive statistic, unit root test, Granger causality test and error correction model (ECM). The study accepted a neutrality hypothesis... more
Strengthening Critical Value Chains with Agshare Open Knowledge Agshare II Convening 2015Strengthening Critical Value Chains with Agshare Open Knowledge Agshare II Convening 2015
The purpose of the AgSgare convening was to provide an opportunity for project teams: * Makerere College of Communication and Information Science (CoCIS) – Indigenous Agricultural Knowledge * Makerere College of Veterinary Medicine, Animal Resources and Biosecurity (COVAB) – Dairy Hygiene * Haramaya Department of Agricultural Information and Communication Management (AICM)-... more