Cash crop versus food crop production in Tanzania: An assessment of the major Post-colonial trends
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Date
1985
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Sokoine University of Agriculture
Abstract
In the less developed countries CLDCs) a substantial share
of the output produced in the agricultural sector is con
sumed directly on the farm. This share is commonly termed
subsistence consumption. The difference between total out
put and subsistence consumption constitutes the marketed-
from agriculture. In a country dominated by an
agricultural sector, the growth of this surplus not only
poses a constraint on the rate of structural transformation
of the economy by being the main source of food supply for
the non-agricultural population, but it is also the major
source of investment funding, the size of which of course
will also have a decisive bearing on the rate of economic
growth and development that can be achieved. Some writers
on economic development even argue that the presence of an
agricultural surplus is a precondition for economic deve
lopment .1
In this study we shall concentrate on identifying the
factors that have governed the development of the size and
the composition of the marketed surplus. In particular the
composition of the marketed surplus in terms of cash crop?
and food crops will be in focus. (Definitions of these two
categories of crops follows shortly.) A main thesis of the
study is that Tanzania should concentrate more on cash crop
production than has been the case during the last fifteen
years, i.e. that a change of policy in the suggested direc
tion will have positive effects on trade, employment, in
come and capital formation.
In this introductory chapter we seek to provide a framework
for the analysis. This will do by (1) giving a brief ac
count of the nature of the constraint posed by the marketed
surplus from agriculture on economic development, (2) pro
viding some definitional terms that are of central im-2
portance for the study, and (3) giving a short presentation
of Tanzania’s resources, farming structure and economic
structure.
Description
Dissertation
Keywords
Crop production, Cash crop, Food crop, Food markerts