ABSTRACT
Africa south of the Sahara has become a major problem area. In some parts of Sub-Saharan Africa subsistence farming is increasing again: agricultural producers deliberately abandon the cultivation of cash crops, thus countering a long-standing process of ongoing production for overseas and domestic markets. Spatial variations in the commercialization of Sub-Saharan Africa's agriculture are closely related to differences in the demography and socio-political organization of African societies and their colonial histories, to disparities in present-day population growth. Sub-Saharan Africa's incorporation into the world economy in colonial time brings in its wake the cultivation of crops for overseas markets, sometimes through coercion. Swazi farmers embarked upon cotton growing in response to favourable production stimuli and without any substantial direct government assistance. Domestic production was boosted by a favourable producer price policy, the activities of a parastatal, and substantial government subsidies. The major explanatory factor is the specific nature of government policy, namely its one-sided concentration on economic growth.
