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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Taking Stock: Food Marketing Reform in Rwanda, 1982-1989 |
Author: | Pottier, Johan |
Year: | 1993 |
Periodical: | African Affairs: The Journal of the Royal African Society |
Volume: | 92 |
Issue: | 366 |
Period: | January |
Pages: | 5-30 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Rwanda |
Subjects: | food policy food marketing Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Economics and Trade |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/723094 |
Abstract: | This paper examines the question of why State intervention in regulating food markets in Rwanda remained at such a low level during the 1980s. The National Food Strategies concept promoted by the EC had developed from an awareness that the problem of food insecurity had more to do with distribution and exchange than with declining food availability. As part of Rwanda's strategy for improving the food entitlement of poor people, the 'Office pour la promotion, la vente et l'importation des produits agricoles' (OPROVIA) came to adopt a leading role. Several possible reasons for Rwanda's poor response to the EC recommendation are put forward. One major explanation revolves around Rwanda's tradition of a strictly local, politicized approach to food security. Rwanda's political regime, with its Northern ethos, has difficulty implementing the idea of a centralized responsibility, because the National Food Strategies concept does not fit the dominant politicocultural view on food entitlement. Another major explanation is ecological. Endowed with numerous micro environments, Rwanda's physical setting creates demands that are difficult to meet via centralized, State-controlled marketing. This is illustrated with reference to bean production in Butare, southern Rwanda, where the author did fieldwork in 1985-1986. Attention is drawn to Butare's urban poor, who are themselves food producers. Notes, ref. |