Effects of Cash Crop Production on Food Crop Productivity in Zimbabwe: Synergies or Trade-offs?

February 2, 1999 - Author: Jones Govereh and T. S. Jayne

IDWP 74. Jones Govereh and T. S. Jayne. 1999. 23pp. Effects of Cash Crop Production on Food Crop Productivity in Zimbabwe: Synergies or Trade-offs?

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
The experiments with African state-led models of input intensification on food crops (featuring
subsidized state credit disbursement, input delivery, and purchase of output) generally have
proven themselves to be financially unsustainable. But in many parts of Eastern and Southern
Africa, the subsequent withdrawal of state-subsidized credit, input delivery and food crop price
fixing has resulted in a decline of cash inputs on food crops. A sustained renewal of African
agriculture growth will require some form of transformation out of the semi-subsistence, lowinput,
low-productivity farming systems that currently characterize much of rural Africa.


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