Farm Productivity and Market Structure. Evidence From Cotton Reforms in Zambia

Irene Brambilla and Guido Porto

Working Papers from Economic Growth Center, Yale University

Abstract: This paper investigates the impacts of cotton marketing reforms on farm productivity, a key element for poverty alleviation, in rural Zambia. The reforms comprised the elimination of the Zambian cotton marketing board that was in place since 1977. Following liberalization, the sector adopted an outgrower scheme, whereby firms provided extension services to farmers and sold inputs on loans that were repaid at the time of harvest. There are two distinctive phases of the reforms: a failure of the outgrower scheme, and a subsequent period of success of the scheme. Our findings indicate that the reforms led to interesting dynamics in cotton farming. During the phase of failure, farmers were pushed back into subsistence and productivity in cotton declined. With the improvement of the outgrower scheme of later years, farmers devoted larger shares of land to cash crops, and farm productivity significantly increased.

Keywords: cotton marketing reforms; farm productivity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O12 O13 Q12 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 41 pages
Date: 2005-07
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-agr, nep-dev, nep-eff and nep-mkt
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (16)

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Related works:
Working Paper: Farm productivity and marketstructure: evidence from cotton reforms in Zambia (2006)
Working Paper: Farm Productivity and Market Structure: Evidence from Cotton Reforms in Zambia (2005)
Working Paper: Farm Productivity and Market Structure: Evidence from Cotton Reforms in Zambia (2005)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:egc:wpaper:919

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