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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Changing Public and Private Roles in the Hybrid Maize Seed Industry: Insights from Southern Africa |
Authors: | Rusike, Joseph Eicher, Carl K. |
Year: | 1995 |
Periodical: | African Rural and Urban Studies |
Volume: | 2 |
Issue: | 2-3 |
Pages: | 51-81 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | East Africa Southern Africa |
Subjects: | economic policy seeds privatization maize Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology Economics and Trade |
Abstract: | Many of the government maize seed industries in southern and eastern Africa are currently being restructured to encourage the private sector to play an expanded role in maize improvement research, varietal development, seed production, conditioning and marketing. These changes are being driven by the political and economic reforms being implemented under structural adjustment programmes (SAP). This study investigates the technological, institutional and organizational innovations in the maize seed industry in eastern and southern Africa. Special attention is devoted to an analysis of the impact of structural adjustment programmes on the organization and performance of the maize seed industry in South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia, Malawi, Kenya and Tanzania since the early 1980s. The thesis of the study is that the seed industry progresses through different stages of a life cycle by an incremental and path-dependent learning process for governments, agribusiness firms and farmers. The country studies illustrate the crucial role of the government in the early stage of seed industry development. The major finding of the study is that structural adjustment programmes have had a positive impact on maize seed industry development in eastern and southern Africa. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |