THE crisis in agriculture is systemic. It is deeply rooted in the lack of a clear development compass for the sector.
THE crisis in agriculture is systemic. It is deeply rooted in the lack of a clear development compass for the sector.
The clearest indicator of this is the poor performance of agriculture under the two major phases of trade liberalization. The first happened in the 1980s when the sector was placed under the IMF-World Banks structural adjustment program (SAP).
Government support for the sector was severely downsized. The NFAs personnel and grains-buying capacity was reduced by more than half and irrigation and rural infrastructure development grounded to a halt. The SAP battle cry: Agricultural deregulation to help transform the small farmers to become efficient and modern agricultural producers.
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