Agrarian policies and rural poverty in Africa/ edited by Dharam Ghai and Samir Radwan

Hitherto, little comparative work has been done on rural poverty, income distribution and agrarian change in Africa. One of the aims of this study is to help to fill this gap in the knowledge and understanding of the process and results of rural development in African States since independence. In the nine country studies included in the volume, covering Botswana, Ghana, the Ivory Coast, Kenya, Malawi, Mozam bique, Nigeria, Somalia and Zambia, an attempt is made to provide a quantitative and qualitative profile of rural poverty and income distribution and to evaluate the impact of state policies on them, especially with respect to land tenure, public expenditure and resource extraction from the rural areas.

A particular effort has been made to determine, in the

light of the evidence available, whether the economic growth. experienced in the nine countries has.or has not led to a widespread improvement in the living standards of the great mass of the rural population or whether the benefits of growth, have accrued to a small minority only.