Per capita

Agriculture

Demography

Engineering

Food prices

Food policy

Archaeology

Food security

Economics

Market economy

Boom

Development economics

Commodity

Environmental engineering

Geography

Political science

Population

Sociology

International economics

Per capita income

Agricultural economics

World Development

This paper examines the causes of Africa's food crisis by examining patterns of food imports. The econometric results indicate that the rise in food imports during 1970-87 can be explained by a combination of demographic, policy, and economic factors which have raised domestic demand for imported food. These factors include urban migration, peaks in income (especially during commodity booms), lower international prices of food, and distorted exchange rates. After accounting for these factors, the residual trend in food imports per capita is negative over this period. Evidence is also presented showing that, in Ghana, policy reforms have led to reverse migration from urban to rural areas.

The causes of Africa's food crisis