Agricultural pricing policy in Eastern Africa
Ansong, Granville | Posehn, Greg D. | Gerrard, Christopher D.
The purpose of the present study is to provide a brief historical background of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, and Zambia, focusing on those aspects of their political and economic history which are particularly relevant to the topic of this one-day seminar. In particular, it focuses on the economic structure of the four countries; agricultural production; agricultural exports; agricultural development policy; agricultural marketing, and exchange rate, monetary, and fiscal policies. Although agricultural production is similar in the four countries, the structure of agriculture exhibits some significant differences among the four countries. Land use for sedentary agricultural purposes is of two general types: tropical highland and tropical savanna. Agricultural production in all four countries is almost entirely rainfed. One important exception is the cultivation of rice under government-sponsored irrigation schemes in Kenya and Malawi. Agricultural production in the four countries comes overwhelmingly from hundreds of thousands of family farmers who cultivate small plots of land. The typical smallholder produces both food crops (such as maize and beans) and export crops. The most important small-farmer export crops are coffee and tea.
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