By Godfrey Bahiigwa, Ntengua Mdoe and Frank Ellis

IDS Bulletin Vol 36 No 2 June 2005

The findings of livelihoods research conducted in East Africa and Malawi demonstrate that the role of agriculture in contributing to poverty reduction in sub-Sahara African countries is rather more complicated than the apparently straightforward mechanisms portrayed by enthusiasts for agriculture-led growth strategies in the region. Rural livelihoods are diverse and founded on interdependencies between rural and urban areas. These interdependencies have deepened since market liberalisation in the 1980s due to increased price risk, rising input prices relative to output prices, detrimental HIV/AIDS effects on labour and other asset availabilities, environmental deterioration and continuing farm subdivision at inheritance.