Files
Abstract
The case for promoting export-oriented cash crops in Africa has generally been based on their direct potential contribution
to agricultural productivity and small farmer incomes. A relatively neglected avenue of research concerns the synergistic
effects that cash cropping can have on other household activities, including food production. The conventional view that cash
crops compete with food crops for land and labour neglects the potential for cash crop schemes to make available inputs
on credit, management training, and other resources that can contribute to food crop productivity, which might otherwise
not be accessible to farmers if they did not participate in cash crop programs. This article builds on previous research by
hypothesising key pathways by which cash crops may affect food crop activities and empirically measuring these effects
using the case of cotton in Gokwe North District in Zimbabwe. Analysis is based on instrumental variable analysis of survey
data on 430 rural households in 1996. Results indicate that_.after controlling for household assets, education and locational
differences-households engaging intensively in cotton production obtain higher grain yields than non-cotton and marginal
cotton producers. We also find evidence of regional spill-over effects whereby commercialisation schemes induce second
round investments in a particular area that provide benefits to all farmers in that region, regardless of whether they engage in
that commercialisation scheme. The study suggests that the potential spill-over benefits for food crops through participation
in cash crop programs are important to consider in the development of strategies designed to intensify African food crop
production.
© 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.