2.2. Decline in global support for investments in African agriculture
Donor support for agriculture also declined precipitously. As domestic budgets tightened, investments declined in agricultural research and other public goods such as irrigation, rural roads, and rural electrification. Low investment has also eroded civil service salaries, immobilized extension and research staff, diminished staff incentives, and fueled an exodus of senior scientists from public research institutions (Pardey et al., 2006).
The low level of investment in agriculture in Africa was strongly correlated with the decline in Official Development Assistance (ODA) for agriculture. As bilateral and multilateral donors shifted emphasis in the 1990s toward the social sectors, especially health and education, the share of agriculture in overall ODA declined across African countries (Table 1). Yet, evidence has shown that the rates of return to public expenditures are high in agriculture due to its growth and poverty reduction effects. Fan et al. (2009) show that the rates of return to public investment in agriculture exceed those from health, education, and roads.
privatization of government agencies, liberalizations of markets, removal of the government from the agricultural markets, and elimination of subsidies