Structural Adjustment, Agricultural Development, and the Poor

Structural Adjustment, Agricultural Development, and the Poor

Author: Uma J. Lele

Publisher:

Published: 1989

Total Pages: 26

ISBN-13:

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The structural adjustment efforts under way since the early 1980s have emphasized the liberalization of agricultural prices and markets and have led to a vigorous debate about the appropriate roles of the private and public sectors. This paper examines the causes of state intervention prior to independence as well as post-independence experience with marketing parastatals and cooperatives in Cameroon, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, Senegal and Tanzania. This analysis is followed by an overview of the content and outcomes of the marketing and pricing liberalization programs. The focus is on the pricing and marketing of traditional export and food crops, which in these countries constitute well over 90 percent of the area harvested, value added and employment created in agriculture. The paper is not concerned with dairy, livestock or horticultural crops - areas in which government intervention has been less obtrusive and in which the private sector has played an important role.


Structural Adjustment & the African Farmer

Structural Adjustment & the African Farmer

Author: Alex Duncan

Publisher: Heinemann Educational Books

Published: 1992

Total Pages: 234

ISBN-13:

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This book traces the impact of structural adjustment policies upon the incomes and welfare of Africa's peasant farmers who currently operate at very low levels of productivity of both land and labour and are confronted with low household income and inadequate food security. A common method has been applied across five countries. Analyses have been made of the links between national economic policies and the various markets in which the smallholders operate, and the services and infrastructures which influence their productive capacities. There are differences in the resource base and the level of ecological deterioration, in export opportunities, in physical infrastructure and, in particular, in the depth and nature of economic policy reforms. The team have recognised the important differences between these five countries and overcome the formidable problems of collecting agricultural data in Africa. The book provides firm evidence of the impact, both positive and negative, of structural adjustment. The editors argue for a more targeted, project-specific approach to small farmer development. This complements the current, donor interest in policy related aid support.


Structural Adjustment

Structural Adjustment

Author: SAPRIN

Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.

Published: 2013-07-18

Total Pages: 144

ISBN-13: 1848137850

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Structural adjustment programmes are the largest single cause of increased poverty, inequality and hunger in developing countries. This book is the most comprehensive, real-life assessment to date of the impacts of the liberalisation, deregulation, privatisation and austerity that constitute structural adjustment. It is the result of a unique five year collaboration among citizensā€˜ groups, developing country governments, and the World Bank itself. Its authors, the members of the Structural Adjustment Participatory Review International Network (SAPRIN), reveal the practical consequences for manufacturing, small enterprise, wages and conditions, social services, health, education, food security, poverty and inequality. The stark conclusion emerges: if there is to be any hope for meaningful development, structural adjustment and neoliberal economics must be jettisoned.