Evolution of Agricultural Marketing Institutions and the Public versus Private Debate in Tanzania

Nindi, Benson

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Title:	Evolution of Agricultural Marketing Institutions and the Public versus Private Debate in Tanzania
Author:	Nindi, Benson
Year:	1990
Periodical:	Transafrican Journal of History (ISSN 0251-0391)
Volume:	19
Pages:	117-138
Language:	English
Notes:	biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:	Tanzania East Africa
Subjects:	economic policy marketing cash crops privatization Economics and Trade Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment History and Exploration colonialism Management, Public Administration public enterprises private enterprises Agricultural enterprises
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/24328679
Abstract:	Public sector organizations in Tanzania are typically an integral part of a patron-client political and economic system. This paper examines the evolution of agricultural marketing institutions and the public versus private debate within this sociopolitical context, paying attention to the role of the State. Section 1 reviews Tanzanian development strategy and discusses the dynamics of State intervention in the economy in order to understand the processes of political control, patronage and employment generation. An examination of the evolution of the agricultural marketing system in section 2 shows that institutional arrangements in relation to rural agricultural marketing constitute some of the worst policy failures. The cooperative marketing system of the period from independence up to 1973 was succeeded by crop marketing parastatals, but in the early 1980s the parastatal crop marketing system proved to be a total disaster. Section 3 explores the changing character of food marketing in the period 1985-1988, the role of private traders, which has been increasing over the past decade, and the need for policy reform. Grain marketing will be the main focus of economic reform being carried out in 1988/1989, and the greatest change will be in the marketing of cash crops. The process of formulating and implementing policy reforms involves a careful balancing of the different, and usually conflicting, interests of various groups active in the political system. Sources of impetus toward privatization and the major political constraints are presented in section 4. Bibliogr.