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Abstract
Like many countries in sub-Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe is experiencing rapid growth in wheat
consumption and imports. Policy makers in Zimbabwe and elsewhere must decide whether increased
domestic wheat production might reduce dependency on imports and at the same time
contribute to economic efficiency and food security goals. The domestic resource cost framework
was used to assess Zimbabwe's comparative advantage among six major irrigated crops and to
measure the effects of current government policies on producer incentives. The results indicate
that irrigated wheat production represents an efficient use of Zimbabwe's resources during times
of abundant rainfall, but the nation enjoys a comparative advantage in tobacco, maize, and cotton
production during times of water scarcity. Existing agricultural policies provide disincentives for
commercial farmers, because private profitability is less than social profitability for the major
irrigated crops. However, this tax occurs across all commodities with similar incidence, so that
the private incentives among crops are not greatly distorted from their social pattern. Sensitivity
analysis confirms the robustness of these findings under a range of possible future economic and
political developments. The domestic resource cost approach used in this study provides an operational
method for measuring comparative advantage and should be of interest to policy analysts
throughout sub-Saharan Africa.