This short article has two themes: it is prompted first by a feeling that many African countries, in their natural impatience for maximum economic development in the shortest possible time, are in some danger of getting their strategy and priorities not quite right in regard to the rural—urban, agricultural—industrial balance. More specifically, a plea is made for greater attention being given to traditional food farming (for subsistence or cash), which has been somewhat neglected in research, in spite of the fact that it must inevitably continue for a long time to support increasing numbers.