small farmers in Africa, relying on their own land and family labor and using few costly inputs such as chemical fertilizers, are more efficient producers than plantations.

This is the key to local development, not the endless attempts to persuade us that we need to encourage plantation culture (in favour of top-end interests). It's to be hoped small farmers with know-how won't all be driven by often impossible market conditions to leave the land and congregate hopelessly in megapolises. Current high food prices may have the right effect on that -- but policy and investment decisions are needed too.