Progress in Asian and African Farming Honoring Keijiro Otsuka: Essays

This volume is a compilation of essays written by top researchers on the topics that

Prof. Keijiro Otsuka has been working on in his career. The authors have had either

a chance to work with him on a research project or are simply his good friends in

the profession. The essays were written in a way easily understandable by people in

many different disciplines.

The aim of the volume is to identify the pathways of agricultural development

in Asia and Africa. It evaluates whether Africa is following in Asia's footprints.

This volume has a resounding message that Africa is becoming the next Asia as

it benefits from the earlier experience of Asia in agricultural and overall development.

Africa has followed the Asian pathways: borrowed technology from abroad;

did adaptive research in rice farming (modern seeds, fertilizer, and mechanical technologies);

secured property rights on natural resources; adopted information and

communication technologies (ICTs); invested in human capital, including training;

and spread high-value revolution. Borrowed technology from abroad and adaptive

research have jump-started the Asian-style Green Revolution in rice farming in

favorable production environments in Africa and are expected to spread to other

areas.

In Asia, the Green Revolution resulted in higher food production and lower food

prices that led to deterioration in terms of trade of agriculture (i.e., the decline in the

price of farm goods relative to nonfarm goods), leading to rapid structural transformation.

The most striking feature of structural transformation is the secular decline

in the share of agriculture and the corresponding increase in the combined share of

industry and services, whether measured in terms of output or employment. Structural

transformation in Asia has been the primary driver of the region's rising income

and geographic movement of capital and labor.