The examination of the role of local government in agricultural development in Africa, the subject of this paper, requires inputs from economics and agricultural economics, the technical aspects of agriculture, political science and politics, and administrative and bureaucratic studies. To begin with, should one survey the literature of economists and of agricultural economists, one finds few, if any, examinations of the functional and operational relationships between these subjects and local government. At best, there are rather negative references to the local politics, politicians, and bureaucrats. To many an economist and agricultural economist, particularly those conducting farm-level and project research and those involved in the planning and implementation of agricultural projects, the local political and administrative scene is normally viewed as disruptive, and indeed even “irrational.” Book after book, article after article, report after report written by this group fail to identify these relationships in any meaningful way.

Then turn to the literature of agronomists, veterinarians, forestry and water-development experts, and so on. How frequently do such development professionals recognize the economic, political, and administrative parameters of their research and their policy proposals, particularly at the local level? Their policies and procedures, based on technical considerations, are often matters of should be this way, should happen, should be done, should be desirable. Yet historically the technical men have been in charge of rural development, particularly agronomists and veterinarians. Their almost exclusively technical orientation has rather consistently in so many ways and places led to results far less favourable than would otherwise have been the case had the political, economic, and administrative dimensions been identified and incorporated.