Agriculture, the Theory of Economic Development, and the Zande Scheme

Emeka Onwubuemeli

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00014269

Agriculture, the Theory of Economic Development, and the Zande Scheme

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Emeka Onwubuemeli

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The rôle of agriculture in the theory of economic development is equivocal. Not that anyone would dispute the need for expanding the supply of food in the course of economic development, especially during the early stages characterised by high income elasticities of demand. Quite the contrary, existing theories fully recognise this need, while noting, however, its frequent conflict with any programme of rapid capital accumulation in a situation of low savings rates.1 It therefore follows, so the argument runs, that the demand for food should be met as much as possible from domestic sources, while confining the export of scarce savings to the needs of industry: i.e. for importing manufacturing skills and techniques, with their higher productivities, linkages, and externalities.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 12 , Issue 4 , December 1974 , pp. 569 - 587

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00014269 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1974

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^{Page 569 note 1} See, for instance, Dovring, F., ‘The Share of Agriculture in a Growing Population’, in Monthly Bulletin of Agricultural Economics and Statistics (Rome), VIII, 8–9, 08–09 1959;Google ScholarJohnston, B. and Mellor, J., ‘The Rôle of Agriculture in Economic Development’, in The American Economic Review (Providence, R.I.), LI, 4, 09 1961;Google ScholarLewis, W. Arthur, ‘Economic Development with Unlimited Supplies of Labour’, in Agarwala, A. and Singh, S. (eds.), The Economics of Underdevelopment (New York, 1963);Google ScholarRanis, G. and Fei, J., ‘A Theory of Economic Development’, in The American Economic Review, LI, 4, 09 1961,Google Scholar and ‘Innovation, Capital Accumulation, and Economic Development’, ibid. LIII, 3, June 1963; and Sayigh, Y. A., ‘The Place of Agriculture in Economic Development’, in Agricultural Situation in India (New Delhi), XIV, 5, 1959.Google Scholar

^{Page 570 note 1} Originally published in The Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, May 954, and reprinted in Agarwala and Singh, op. cit. pp. 401–49.

^{Page 570 note 2} Ibid. p. 416. All the quotations from Lewis which follow are taken from this essay.

^{Page 571 note 1} With respect to skilled labour, Lewis contends that ‘it is theoretically possible that the immigration of skilled workers may reduce the demand for the services of native unskilled workers, but this is most unlikely. More probably it will make possible new investments and industries which were not possible before, and will thus increase the demand for all kinds of labour, relatively to its supply.’ Ibid. p. 436.

^{Page 572 note 1} Reining, Conrad, The Zande Scheme (Evanston, 1966), p. 164.Google Scholar

^{Page 572 note 2} See also Eckaus, R., ‘The Factor Proportions Problem in Underdeveloped Areas’, in The American Economic Review, XLV, 4, 09 1955;Google Scholar and Johnston and Mellor, loc. cit. pp. 575–76.

^{Page 572 note 3} Ranis, and Fei, , ‘A Theory of Economic Development’, pp. 537 and 540Google Scholar.

^{Page 572 note 4} Ranis, and Fei, , ‘Innovation, Capital Accumulation, and Economic Development’, p. 289.Google Scholar

^{Page 572 note 5} Johnston and Mellor, loc. cit. p. 580.

^{Page 573 note 1} Lewis, loc. cit. p. 412.

^{Page 573 note 2} Ibid. p. 413.

^{Page 574 note 1} Cf.Ranis, and Fei, , ‘Innovation, Capital Accumulation, and Economic Development’, pp. 292–5.Google Scholar

^{Page 574 note 2} Lewis, loc. cit. p. 434.

^{Page 575 note 1} Johnston and Mellor, loc. cit. pp. 571–2. All the quotations from these authors which follow are taken from this essay.

^{Page 575 note 2} See, for instance, Kindleberger, C., Economic Development (New York, 1965), pp. 218–19.Google Scholar

^{Page 575 note 3} For such a rare occasion, see Johnston and Mellor, loc. cit. p. 581.

^{Page 575 note 4} Sayigh, loc. cit. p. 451.

^{Page 575 note 5} See Rostow, W. W., ‘The Take-off into Self-Sustained Growth’, originally published in The Economic Journal (London), LXVI, 261, 03 1956,Google Scholar and reprinted in Agarwala and Singh, op. cit. pp. 154–86.

^{Page 575 note 6} Eckaus, loc. cit. p. 540.

^{Page 576 note 1} Ranis, and Fei, , ‘A Theory of Economic Development’, pp. 542–4.Google Scholar

^{Page 576 note 2} Johnston and Mellor, loc. cit. p. 582.

^{Page 576 note 3} Ibid. p. 574.

^{Page 577 note 1} Ibid. pp. 584–5.

^{Page 578 note 1} Ibid. p. 587.

^{Page 578 note 2} Reining, op. cit. pp. 81–6. See also Wyld, J., ‘The Zande Scheme’, in Sudan Notes and Records (Khartoum), XXX, 1949, pp. 47–50.Google Scholar

^{Page 579 note 1} For an explanation as well as a more extended discussion, see Onwubuemeli, Emeka, ‘Early Zande History’, in Sudan Notes and Records, 53, 1972, pp. 36–66.Google Scholar

^{Page 579 note 2} Wyld, loc. cit. p. 55.

^{Page 580 note 1} Reining, op. cit. p. 192. But Zande preferences were closely followed in residential relocations; see Wyld, loc. cit. p. 55.

^{Page 580 note 2} Reining, op. cit. p. 104.

^{Page 581 note 1} Ibid. pp. 159–60.

^{Page 582 note 1} Ibid. pp. 173–4.

^{Page 583 note 1} Ibid. pp. 175–7.

^{Page 583 note 2} The cotton farmers in Zaïre were also of the Zande tribe which had been partitioned between three separate colonial administrations: the British Sudan, Belgian Congo, and French Equatorial Africa.

^{Page 584 note 1} Reining, op. cit. pp. 215–16.

^{Page 584 note 2} Ibid. pp. 230–1.

^{Page 585 note 1} Wrigley, C. C., Crops and Wealth in Uganda (Kampala, 1959), p. 60.Google Scholar

^{Page 585 note 2} Reining, op. cit. p. 183.

^{Page 585 note 3} Ibid. pp. 171–2.

^{Page 586 note 1} Lewis, loc. cit. p. 423.

^{Page 586 note 2} Reining, op. cit. p. 182.

^{Page 586 note 3} Eckaus, loc. cit. p. 542.

^{Page 586 note 4} Johnston and Mellor, loc. cit. pp. 579–80.

^{Page 587 note 1} Kindleberger, op. cit. pp. 217–18.

^{Page 587 note 2} Dovring, loc. cit. p. 11.

^{Page 587 note 3} Sayigh, loc. cit. p. 450.

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