Fast urbanization has been one of the main territorial problems in Sub-Saharan Africa. One of the most important features of this process in Africa is the concentration of population in few areas. Although the general benefits that urbanization can bring, if the process is fast the costs could be very high in terms of physical and social infrastructures, urban unemployment increasing poverty, and so on. Some factors can accent this process such as the World Bank policies for poverty reduction and the rural development strategy from the Economic Commission for Africa (ECA). Both strategies privilege increasing agricultural productivity but hardly consider regional development strategies as a weapon against urban concentration and poverty reduction. An econometric exercise using large panel data considering agricultural productivity and urbanization level shows an elasticity of 0.068. This means that, ceteris paribus, increasing 1% in the agricultural productivity implies the level of urbanization will increase 0.068%. Taking the figure of 2005, the level of urbanization in Africa would be 40.9% instead of 38.3%. What looks as a small increase, in fact, is an addition of almost 24 million of inhabitants to urban areas. It is more than twice the Portuguese population! This paper discusses these problems and points out some possible solutions through territorial strategies supported by the Regional Science arsenal.

urbanização; produtividade agrícola; migração