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 Periodical article |
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| Title: | Malawi: Reforming the State's Role in Agricultural Marketing |
| Author: | Smith, Lawrence D. |
| Year: | 1995 |
| Periodical: | Food Policy |
| Volume: | 20 |
| Issue: | 6 |
| Period: | December |
| Pages: | 561-571 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Malawi |
| Subjects: | market economy agricultural marketing Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Economics and Trade Politics and Government |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1016/0306-9192(95)00049-6 |
| Abstract: | Compared to the early 1980s, the pendulum of donor conventional wisdom appears to be swinging back to recognizing that the State does have a legitimate role in agricultural marketing activities. The problem still remains, however, of deciding what constitutes a reasonable balance between the State and the private sector given the wide array of market failure, market development or income distribution grounds justifying some form of intervention. Regrettably, the State typically has the largest potential role in improving market performance in those circumstances where it has the least technical, administrative and financial capabilities. This paper examines three examples of smallholder market reform in Malawi - in staple food crops, fertilizer, and burley tobacco - to illustrate both the case for maintaining some role for the State and the complexities involved in reducing this role when that is considered desirable. Special attention is paid to the role of ADMARC, the parastatal through which smallholder crops, except fruit and vegetables, are marketed in Malawi. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |
