2023 Volume 2023 Issue 103 Pages 1-9
Although rural livelihood in contemporary Africa has long been involved in a market economy, it is still dominated by the logic of subsistence food production, which includes not only farming but also hunting and gathering. Subsistence production of food is in turn influenced by the patterns of food consumption, particularly processing and cooking methods, which are applied to foods obtained from both farms and the wild. The whole system of production and consumption of food is made up of a series of activities, ranging from cultivation, harvesting, processing, cooking to eating. Each activity is likely to be performed collectively in the African context, based on the existing cultural norms and orientation. Therefore, agricultural innovation in Africa should be regarded as a sociocultural process, in which innovation on farms takes place not merely as an isolated event; rather, it is linked closely with innovation in other aspects of village life, in particular patterns of food consumption and cooperation among villagers.
