Conventional wisdom holds that Sub-Saharan African farmers use few modern inputs
despite the fact that most growth-inducing and poverty-reducing agricultural growth in the region
is expected to come largely from expanded use of inputs that embody improved technologies,
particularly improved seed, fertilizers and other agro-chemicals, machinery, and irrigation. Yet
following several years of high food prices, concerted policy efforts to intensify fertilizer and
hybrid seed use, and increased public and private investment in agriculture, how low is modern
input use in Africa really? This paper revisits Africa’s agricultural input landscape, exploiting the
unique, recently collected, nationally representative, agriculturally intensive, and cross-country
comparable Living Standard Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMSISA)
covering six countries in the region (Ethiopia, Malawi, Niger, Nigeria, Tanzania, and
Uganda). Using data from over 22,000 households and 62,000 plots, we offer ten potentially
surprising facts about modern input use in Africa today.