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Abstract
One of the regions of most concern in Sub-Saharan Africa is the geographical area of the West
African semi-arid tropics (WASAT) where there has been little impact from the green revolution
and most of the region suffers from inadequate and irregular rainfall and low fertility soils. Decreasing
per-capita food production trends and 2-3% per-year population growth trends have
convinced some to adopt a Malthusian perspective about the future of the WASAT. This paper
evaluates the prospects of agricultural technologies and farm management practices that are currently
proposed for the WASAT cereal farming system. The technologies are assessed with respect
to their agronomic and economic feasibility, risk and their fit within the farming systems. They
are ranked as to their feasibility of adoption by farmers in the short, intermediate and long run.
The findings suggest that several agricultural technologies are feasible for use in the short run
provided that they are used as a package. The complexity and initial high financial and human
capital requirements, however, often prohibit farmers from adopting the total package simultaneously.
A stepwise approach to adoption is difficult since separate adoption results in lower
profitability and higher risk levels. Government policy intervention may be necessary to enable
farmers to adopt single technologies en route to total package adoption.