Initiated in the 1980s by the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF), structural adjustment was designed to reduce the role of government, cut back on public sector expenditures, improve balance of payments, reduce government deficits, enhance macroeconomic performance, and help African countries to achieve higher economic growth rates. The key elements of the policy reform included macroeconomic reforms, privatization of government agencies, liberalizations of markets, removal of the government from the agricultural markets, and elimination of subsidies. Because the policy reforms devalued currencies, reduced taxation on agriculture, and raised producer prices (Kherallah et al., 2002), they generated significant positive benefits for farmers in the tradable sectors, especially cash crops. But for smallholder farmers producing staple foods for domestic markets, the net effect of the structural adjustment has been largely negative—as exemplified by the collapse of the hybrid maize green revolution in eastern and southern Africa mentioned earlier. Competition from low cost and often subsidized food imports, reduced access to credit at affordable rates, and the removal of input subsidies have led to a dramatic reduction in the adoption of modern crop varieties and fertilizers.