ABSTRACT
Agricultural credit is channelled through the various Societies de Developpement, semi-autonomous government bodies set up in the 1960s to promote and diversify agricultural production. Of predominant importance in Malawi is the Agricultural Development and Marketing Corporation (ADMARC), a state marketing agency established in 1971, through which most of the smallholder crops are channelled. The objective of agricultural development policies in most African countries is often expressed in a rather narrow concern for the creation or expansion of a marketable surplus. The bulk of total agricultural production originates from the smallholder sector. This sector, characterized by a relatively even distribution of land in holdings averaging 1.5 hectares in size and with a rather low level of technology, is primarily geared to food production. The output from the treksheep farms, large areas grazed in winter by flocks belonging to absentee owners is not even reflected in Swaziland's agricultural statistics, but in those of the Republic of South Africa.
