Ellen Hillbom

Agricultural development and the distribution of water resources in Kgatleng District, Botswana

During Botswanas four decades of high levels of growth the agricultural sector has lagged behind, with smallholder productivity being especially poor. This paper applies an equity perspective: its main claim is that one important explanation for the current lack of agricultural development is the unequal distribution of agricultural resources. It takes into account both the national institutional structure, which promotes widespread inequality, and the distribution of boreholes and water resources on the communal grazing range in Kgatleng District. It argues that ever since the first administrative effort to develop water resources in the 1920s the countrys official policy and legislation has directly or indirectly favoured the large-scale farmers over the smallholders and, further, that customary property rights principles have supported the process that has led to todays institutional inequality.

Potential for Diversification? The Role of the Formal Sector in Bechuanaland Protectorate's Economy, 1900–65

Abstract While Botswana since independence has experienced impressive economic growth and development this progress has not been accompanied by economic diversification and endogenous growth. In this article we focus on the colonial period and investigate to what extent the formal sector of Bechuanaland Protectorate (colonial Botswana) had the potential to constitute the basis for a diversification of the dominating cattle economy away from its dependency on exporting a single natural resource good – beef. We base our study on colonial archive sources and anthropological evidence which we use to: examine labour market structures; estimate welfare ratios and surplus; and discuss government spending. We find that the demand for skilled labour and human capital development was low throughout the colonial period and that the private sector generally lacked the economic strength and dynamics to develop alternative and/or complementary sectors. Further, we find no evidence of demand driven diversification, neither stemming from private sector consumption and investments, nor from government spending on economic activities outside the cattle sector, infrastructure and human capital development.

Long-term trends in economic inequality: Lessons from colonial Botswana, 1921-74

This article contributes to the growing literature on colonial legacies influencing long-term development. It focuses on Botswana, a case where the post-independence diamond-led economy has been considered an economic success story, despite its high levels of inequality. Here it is argued that this pathway of rapid resource-driven growth combined with increasing socio-economic inequality had already started during the time of the colonial cattle economy, and that this older case is equally relevant for understanding long-term growth-inequality trends in Botswana and other natural-resource-dependent economies. Six social tables, covering the period 1921 to 1974, are constructed using colonial archives, government statistics, and anthropological records. Based on the social tables, income inequality is estimated in the colonial and early post-independence eras, capturing both the formal and informal sectors of the economy. The article demonstrates how the creation of a cattle export sector in the 1930s brought new opportunities to access export incomes, and how this led to a polarization in cattle holdings and increasing income inequalities. Further, with the expansion of colonial administration, government wages forged ahead, increasing income inequality and causing a growing income divide between public and private formal employment.

Endogenous processes of Colonial Settlement : The success and failure of European settler farming in sub-Saharan Africa*

This paper comments on studies that aim to quantify the long-term economic effects of historical European settlement across the globe. We argue for the need to properly conceptualise «colonial settlement» as an endogenous development process shaped by the interaction between prospective settlers and indigenous peoples. We conduct three comparative case studies in West, East and Southern Africa, showing that the «success» or «failure» of colonial settlement critically depended on colonial government policies arranging European farmer’s access to local land, but above all, local labour resources. These policies were shaped by the clashing interests of African farmers and European planters, in which colonial governments did not necessarily, and certainly not consistently, abide to settler demands, as is often assumed.

When water is from God: formation of property rights governing communal irrigation furrows in Meru, Tanzania, c. 1890-2011

Abstract In Meru, Tanzania local initiatives were instrumental in establishing a gravity irrigation system in the 1890s. The original property rights institutions governing furrows were characterised by de facto communal ownership and management combined with private temporary user rights. Over the last 12 decades farming systems in Meru have experienced changing land/labour ratios, overall technological and institutional change as well as increased demand for irrigation water. The furrow system has been extended and due to general agricultural intensification access to water has become an important pre-condition for production in the current local system of agricultural production. However, it is argued that in the midst of drastic overall change in the area, irrigation furrows have experienced no significant change in either technology or property rights institutions. It is found that institutional continuity is explained by the natural characteristics of water, property rights embeddedness in socio-economic structures, and challenges of managing it as a common-pool resource.

Farm Intensification and Milk Market Expansion in Meru, Tanzania

Abstract: In Meru, Tanzania, technological and institutional change has turned milk into one of the most reliable and important sources of income for smallholder households. Decades of increased population density have caused land scarcity, leading smallholders to intensity their fanning methods and land use, including introducing stall-fed exotic breeds of dairy cows. Meanwhile, a growing urban and rural demand has resulted in a significant market expansion for milk and increasing cash incomes for smallholders. Both farm intensification and market expansion are bottom-up processes of change driven primarily by smallholders. These factors make the livestock sector in Meru an interesting example of broad-based agricultural development.

Precolonial Economy and Society, c. 1850–1930

The Tswana groups occupying present-day Botswana arrived in the mid-nineteenth century. In this chapter Hillbom and Bolt analyse their precolonial agro-pastoral production system of combining subsistence crop farming with amassment of cattle. The chapter starts with explaining how the settlement patterns and allocation of agricultural resources of the Tswana formed the basis for the development of a centralized state. Subsequently, the colonial administration’s focus on turning Bechuanaland into a labour reserve for the Southern African region and establishing a taxation system to secure government revenues is scrutinized. For this early colonial era the authors concur with the perception that Botswana experienced limited colonial influence and they identify the 1930s as the break with precolonial structures.

Inequality of Incomes and Opportunity, c. 1920–Present

Like many other natural resource-rich developing countries, income inequality in Botswana is very high. Commonly, it has been assumed that the exploitation of the high value diamonds has caused inequality to rise, but in this chapter Hillbom and Bolt trace the rise of inequality back to the cattle economy. Using social tables, they estimate income inequality for six consecutive decades starting from 1920. By connecting the colonial inequality estimates to the official inequality estimates for the independence era, they are able to capture changes in inequality over 90 years. This long term trend is related to the distribution of resources and opportunities as underlying factors driving income inequality. Throughout the chapter, the theme guiding the analysis is the search for the relationship between sectorial change and long-term trends in inequality and the argument that high inequality and inclusive sustainable development are incompatible.

Colonial Policies and the Cattle Economy, c. 1930–1975

Hillbom and Bolt challenge the common view that Botswana experienced only limited colonial influence. They argue that the later colonial period from 1930 onwards instead has had significant long-term impact on the economic structures of Bechuanaland and later independent Botswana. They explain how the 1930s saw the development of a so-called gate-keeping state characterized by financial constraints restricting its development strategies forcing it to focus its limited tax capacity on controlling its borders. They conduct an in-depth investigation analysing how this led to colonial efforts to establish a cattle export sector resulting in an economy characterized by natural resource dependency and struggling with diversification and equity. Finally, with the Tswana cattle-holding elite taking over after independence, political and economic continuity cemented existing structures.

Trapped by Diamonds, c. 1975–Present

Botswana’s diamond-led growth period has been described as a miracle and success story. In this chapter, Hillbom and Bolt provide an analysis of the period focusing on changes in the structure of the economy: processes of technological progress, sectorial change, and structural transformation. They discuss how, while diamond resources have been prudently managed, Botswana has not been able to use this window of opportunity to turn economic growth into inclusive sustainable economic development and instead the economy is caught in a natural resource trap. In the midst of social development, the colonial gate-keeping state structures remained in place which resulted in the creation of a dual society and economy. Today wealth and modernity exist side by side with poverty and under-development.