The recently completed World Bank project on agricultural distortions in the developing world led by Kym Anderson provided interesting results of how African countries have adjusted their policies over the last three decades. In their book on the African case studies of this project Anderson and Masters (2009) highlight the progress since the 1980s, in reducing the anti-agricultural and antitrade biases of policy in Africa. These changes have been associated with faster economic growth and poverty alleviation. However, many price distortions remain.
The case studies report a wide diversity of results but in essence there has been some reduction in the level of taxation of the agricultural sector in most countries over the last three decades. In summary, Anderson and Masters (2009: 62) conclude that “African governments have removed much of their earlier antifarm and antitrade policy biases.” Government policy biases against agriculture had worsened in the late 1960s and 1970s, primarily through increased taxation of exportable products. Reforms of the 1980s and 1990s reversed that trend, and average rates of agricultural taxation are now back to or below the levels of the early 1960s. The level and dispersion of agricultural nominal rates of assistance (NRAs) also confirm that there has been substantial reform toward less distortion of incentives. However, these NRAs also suggest that there are still many opportunities for policy changes that would be both pro-poor and pro-growth, raising income for low-income farmers and improving resource allocation within and between countries.