Peter Wobst

Policy Bias and Agriculture: Partial and General Equilibrium Measures

The paper examines the impact of industrial protection, agricultural export taxes, and overvaluation of the exchange rate on the balance between the agricultural and nonagricultural sectors. Various agricultural terms-of-trade indices are constructed to measure the policy bias against agriculture in a computable general equilibrium (CGE) framework and compare the results with earlier partial equilibrium measures. Our results indicate that the partial equilibrium measures miss much of the action operating through indirect product and factor market linkages, while overstating the strength of the linkages between changes in the exchange rate and prices of traded goods on the agricultural terms of trade.

The impact of domestic and global trade liberalisation on five Southern African countries

We compare the impact of alternative domestic and global trade liberalisation scenarios on five economies in Southern Africa. The study applies a computable general equilibrium model that employs standardised 12-sector social accounting matrices for Malawi, Mozambique, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The approach incorporates stylised features, such as own-household consumption and marketing margins, that are of particular importance when a majority of agricultural producers are not sufficiently integrated into formal markets and thus rely on own production to meet their daily diets. Hence, improved infrastructure implies lower marketing costs and better market integration, which translates to increased production opportunities. The comparison of the results across all five countries reveals that common policy measures have different impacts depending on the underlying economic structures.

Alternative Soil Fertility Management Options in Malawi: An Economic Analysis

ABSTRACT In this paper, we analyse the factors that influence the productivity of maize among smallholder farmers, given that unfavourable output and input market conditions throughout the 1990s have compelled smallholder farmers into unsustainable agricultural intensification. We use farm-household survey data in order to compare the productivity of smallholder maize production under integrated (ISFM) and chemical-based soil fertility management using a normalised translog yield response model. The results indicate higher maize yield responses for integrated soil fertility management options after controlling for the intensity of fertilizer application, labour intensity, seed rate, land husbandry practices, as well as selected policy factors. The estimated model is highly consistent with theoretical conditions. Thus, we conclude that the use of ISFM improves maize productivity, compared to the use of inorganic fertilizer only. Since most farmers in the maize-based farming systems are crowded out of the agricultural input market and can hardly afford optimal quantities of inorganic fertilizer, enhancement of ISFM is likely to increase their maize productivity. We finally highlight areas of policy support needed to enhance ISFM uptake in smallholder maize-based farming systems.