Sustainable Agriculture and Food: Four volume set (Earthscan Reference Collections)

Table 19.3

Impacts of policy on soils management in Ethiopia, Mali and Zimbabwe

Ethiopia

Mali

Zimbabwe

Policy context

Policy impacts

Policy context

Policy impacts

Policy context

Policy impacts

Input–output pricing

Liberalization and devaluation from 1991; subsidies on fertilizers removed 1997. Currency devaluation from early 1990s.

Real prices of both inputs and outputs increased, although profitability of inputs use constrained.

Structural adjustment from 1982 onwards, removal of subsidies for fertilizer and other inputs, abolition of credit programmes. Restructuring of CMDT Office du Niger. Devaluation of CFA, 1994.

Liberalization of cereal markets, input prices up, food price increases, loss of access to credit.

Liberalization from 1991, with removal of all subsidies. Regular devaluations of Zimbabwe dollar since 1991.

Prices of inputs and outputs have risen, with price ratios remaining approximately similar. High value crops (e.g. vegetables, some cash crops) have become more profitable.

Marketing

Well-established informal markets; fertilizers sold through regional trading companies and private suppliers from mid-1990s.

Limited growth of private sector marketing, with negative impacts on prices for farmers. Reliance on extension or project supply of inputs through credit programmes.

Abolition of state cereal board, liberalization of cereal markets, including rice. Private input supply outside cotton growing area.

Growth in private trade, cereals and vegetables increased opportunities for farmers. Cotton remains a government monopoly through CMDT.

Effective privatization of marketing boards, and encouragement of private trade.

Growth of private trading has had positive impacts in the higher potential areas, but less so in lower potential sites where profit margins are lower. Here, growth of contract arrangements has occurred.