Africans on the Land - Economic Problems of African Agricultural Development in Southern, Central, and East Africa, with Special Reference to Southern Rhodesia

Foreword ## BY EDWARD S. MASON FOR THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS One of the central problems of economic development in lowincome, predominantly agricultural societies is how a farming population producing principally for self-subsistence is brought, or brings itself, into the market economy. Production for the market is usually a necessary condition to an adaptation of land use to more productive purposes. Production for the market can provide the wherewithal to purchase the fertilizers, insecticides, and tools required to increase productivity. The establishment of relations with the exchange economy is apt to stimulate an interest in, and knowledge of, other and better ways of doing things. But the process by which a group of tribally organized and selfsufficient peasants, sowing and reaping in accordance with age-old tradition, and possessing limited and easily satisfied wants, becomes a collection of risk-taking individuals, responsive to price and income incentives, and interested in conserving their land and improving its productivity, is a complicated socioeconomic phenomenon. Dr. Yudelman's experience has been principally in Southern, Central, and East Africa, and what he has to say about this major problem of development applies in varying degree to all these areas. He concentrates, however, on Southern Rhodesia in order to make a detailed examination of the subject. Southern Rhodesia, along with South Africa and Kenya, is a "dual" society in which there exist, side by side, "European agriculture" and "African agriculture." On the one hand are large-scale, capitalintensive, highly efficient farming units producing for the market under European direction. On the other are small-scale, laborintensive, and mainly self-sufficient African farming enterprises. Within the last few years the attention of white-dominated governments in those countries has been directed toward improving the productivity of African farmers and bringing them to a greater degree into the market economy. One of Dr. Yudelman's principal concerns is to examine and assess the probable conse-viii FOREWORD quences of government attempts to increase African productivity. This study is one of several designed to throw light on the relative roles of private enterprise and government in the process of economic development. These studies, undertaken at the Center for International Affairs, were made possible by a generous grant from the Ford Foundation. Some of them focus attention on a wide range of government-private relations in particular countries. The first of the country studies to be published was Professor Raymond Vernon's The Dilemma of Mexico's Development. Others, in preparation, deal with Brazil, Iran, Pakistan, and Nigeria. Additional studies, however, are concerned with important problems of development common to a number of countries. Dr. Yudelman's analysis of the ways and means of increasing agricultural productivity is one of those. MONTAGUE YUDELMAN Foreword Author's Preface Contents Part I: Introduction Chapter 1 Africans, Europeans, and the Land Part II: The Dual Economy of Southern Rhodesia Chapter 2 The Economic and Social Background Chapter 3. Land Apportionment Chapter 4. The Dual Agricultural Economy Part III: African Agriculture in Southern Rhodesia Chapter 5. Land Tenure Chapter 6. Labor: Migrants and Managers Chapter 7. Capital Chapter 8. Prices and Marketing Part IV: Conclusion Chapter 9. Future Prospects for African Agriculture in Southern, Central, and East Africa Appendices Appendix A. Methods of African Agriculture, Land Use, and Food Crops in Southern Rhodesia Appendix Β. Changes in Output and Productivity in African Agriculture in Southern Rhodesia, 1900-1958 Appendix C. A Comment on the Unreliability of Measures of Elasticity of Production and Supply with Regard to Price for Corn and Groundnuts in Southern Rhodesia Notes, Index NOTES Index BOOKS PREPARED UNDER THE AUSPICES OF THE CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, HARVARD UNIVERSITY OCCASIONAL PAPERS IN INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS, PUBLISHED BY CENTER FOR INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS Montague Yudelman is persuaded that if Africans south of the Sahara are to satisfy their growing aspirations, they must first expand their present exchange economy. For this, agricultural resources, now locked in purely subsistence economy, must be used to greater advantage than they are. Focusing on Southern Rhodesia, where a recent governmental program highlights many institutional problems of development to be found in underdeveloped countries, the author analyzes policies, programs, and traditions that foster or inhibit the productivity of African agriculture.