Browsing by Author "Odegaard,Knut"

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Cash crop versus food crop production in Tanzania: An assessment of the major Post-colonial trends
(Sokoine University of Agriculture, 1985) Odegaard,Knut
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.