Smart farming in Africa

[…] telling farmers to grow more is not enough; even giving them the freedom to sell to whomever they wish is not enough. Farmers need cash buyers. Without willing customers, paradoxically, growing more food can grievously hurt farmers—it raises costs and saddles them with worthless surpluses

G. Pascal Zachary has written an excellent piece in the Wilson Quarterly recounting the evolution of farming on the continent since the 1960s.