An Investigation of the Impact of Food Aid on Food Crop Production in Zimbabwe

Calvin Mudzingiri,Clainos Chidoko

doi:10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p77

Abstract

The impact of food aid on food crop production has been subject to debate for a long time in literature. A couple of studies suggest that food aid has a disincentive effect on food crops production. This study uses an autoregressive distributed model to investigate whether there are effects of food aid on maize crop production in Zimbabwe from 1980-2007. The study focuses on two agricultural sectors, namely; commercial and communal agricultural sectors. Food aid shipments significantly affect maize crop production in the commercial agricultural sector. We find no evidence of the impact of food aid on food production in the communal agricultural sector. The study recommends that trade of food crops should remain liberalized to ensure that producers realize a return that is in line with world market price. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014.v5n27p77

Highlights

In the recent years, the Sub Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe included, has been characterized by food shortages and a rise in the flow of food aid (Abdulai et al, 2005)
Where Qt represents maize output at time t in either communal or commercial farming sector, B is the constant parameter, Rt is the average annual rainfall received in Zimbabwe, At stands for area under maize production, Pt signify producer prices of maize, FAt symbolises food aid shipments into Zimbabwe, Lt correspond to labour in the agricultural sector, Kt stands for capital in the agricultural sector and εt is the random disturbance term
What is not clear is the transmission mechanism that takes effect when there is an increase of food aid in the economy

Summary

Introduction

The Sub Saharan Africa, Zimbabwe included, has been characterized by food shortages and a rise in the flow of food aid (Abdulai et al, 2005). Food aid has been known to improve welfare of consumers, a lot of questions have been raised on the effect on local producers of food crops. Zimbabwe experienced a decline in maize output in the two major agricultural sectors, namely; commercial and communal. The fact that maize is the staple food consumed by more than 90% of the population in the country is a cause for concern. Existing literature identifies many factors behind the free fall of maize production; fast track land reform, lack of inputs, poor producer prices, poor farming methods and natural disasters such as drought (Chaumba et al, 2003; Moyo, 2000; Palmer, 1990; Sachikonye, 2003).

Objectives

Methods

Results

Conclusion