Creating Scarcity From Abundance: Bumper Harvests, High Prices, And The Role Of State Interventions In Zambian Maize Markets

Auckland Kuteya and Nicholas Sitko

No 171877, Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs from Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics

Abstract: From 2010 through 2012 harvest seasons, Zambian farmers produced three consecutive maize bumper harvests. The total maize production during this period was 8.6 million metric tonness, of which 4.6 million metric tonnes was a marketable surplus (CSO/MAL various years). This far exceeded the national maize consumption requirement. In an effort to prevent producer price collapse in the wake of these historic harvests, the Government’s Food Reserve Agency (FRA) was mandated to purchase approximately 80% or 3.7 million metric tonnes of the available surplus.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Crop Production/Industries; Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety; Food Security and Poverty; Marketing; Political Economy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 5
Date: 2014-05
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr and nep-agr
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:midcpb:171877

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.171877

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