Africa can rapidly close the economic gap with the West
Thursday, May 30, 2013 - 06:30
in Earth & Climate
In the coming years Africa could experience a favourable turnaround and move away from poverty. A number of historical factors that until now have hindered a rapid agrarian transition is quickly being eliminated. But there will not be a green revolution in Africa like the one we have witnessed in Asia since the 1970s. The intra-African variation in ecological conditions and historical development trajectories is too large and rapid agrarian change is likely to enhance inequality and migratory flows. That is what Professor Ewout Frankema said on 23 May when accepting the chair of Professor of Agrarian and Environmental History in Wageningen University.