Understanding African Farmers

This book Rethinking How We Interpret Behaviour in Smallholder Agriculture provides a structured and evidence-based reinterpretation of farmer decision-making in Africa through the lens of behavioural economics. It challenges the conventional rational actor model that has long dominated agricultural analysis and shows why it cannot fully explain observed patterns of technology uptake, market participation and policy response across African farming systems. Instead, it presents a framework grounded in bounded rationality, risk perception, time preferences, social norms and learning.

Organised into five coherent parts, the book moves from conceptual foundations to applied domains and policy design. It begins by reframing economic assumptions, then examines core behavioural mechanisms shaping farmer decisions. Subsequent sections apply these insights to markets, technology and households, before translating them into governance principles and behaviourally informed intervention strategies. Drawing on empirical evidence from across Africa, the book integrates theory and practice. The book serves as both a scholarly reference and a policy guide, advancing a behavioural framework for understanding and supporting agricultural transformation in Africa.