State Intervention in Agriculture: the Mozambican Experience

Barry Munslow

doi:10.1017/S0022278X00056020

State Intervention in Agriculture: the Mozambican Experience

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 11 November 2008

Barry Munslow

Article contents

Extract
References

Get access

Rights & Permissions

Extract

By the early 1980s, it was becoming increasingly apparent to the Frelimo Government in Mozambique that its agricultural policies were not having the required effects. Production had not recovered to pre-independence levels as intended, agricultural exports remained generally low, and there was hunger in certain areas of the country. Queues and shortages were widespread in the cities, and rationing was introduced in the capital, Maputo. There were many exogenous factors accounting for these problems: alternating years of drought and floods, a constant state of war, first against the Smith régime in Rhodesia and then against South Africa and its client groups, and finally, of course, the world recession and worsening terms of trade.

Type: Articles
Information: The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 22 , Issue 2 , June 1984 , pp. 199 - 221

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X00056020 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1984

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

^{page 200 note 1} For a detailed analysis, see Munslow, Barry, Mozambique: the revolution and its origins (London, 1983).Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 2} ‘The Mozambican Miner. A Study in the Export of Labour’, Centro de Estudos Africanos, Universidade Eduardo Mondlane, Maputo, 1977, the basis for an expanded study by First, Ruth, Black Gold: the Mozambican miner, proletarian and peasant (Brighton, 1983).Google Scholar

^{page 200 note 3} Ibid. pp. 57 and 106–10.

^{page 201 note 1} Vail, Leroy, ‘Mozambique's Chartered Companies: the rule of the feeble’, in The Journal of African History (Cambridge), 18, 3, 1976, p. 401.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 2} Cotta, F., Economic Planning in Corporative Portugal (London, 1937), p. 137.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 3} Bravo, Nelson Saraiva, ‘A Cultura Algodoeira Na Economia Do Norte de Moçambique’, Estudo De Cíencios Politicos E Socias, 66, Lisbon, Junta de Investigações Do Ultramar, 1963.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 4} The Colonial Act of 1930 and Decree 26509 of 1936.

^{page 201 note 5} Bravo, op.cit. p. 79.

^{page 201 note 6} Spence, C. F., The Portuguese Colony of Mozambique (Cape Town, 1951), p. 54.Google Scholar

^{page 201 note 7} Martins, Elisio, Colonialism and Imperialism in Mozambique (Copenhagen, n.d.), p. 123.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 1} Machel, Samora, O Processo da Revolução Democrática Popular em Moçambique (Maputo, n.d.).Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 2} Instituto Nacional de Éstatistica, Annuário Éstalistica, 1969, Vol. 2 (Lisbon, 1969).Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 3} Economia de Moçambique (Lourenço Marques), XI, 6, 1974.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 4} Wuyts, Marc, ‘Peasants and Rural Economy in Mozambique’, Centro de Estudos Africanos, Maputo, 1978.Google Scholar

^{page 202 note 5} Wield, D. V., ‘Mine Labour and Peasant Production in Southern Mozambique’, Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh, 1979.Google Scholar

^{page 203 note 1} See Meillassoux, Claude, Femmes, greniers et capitaux (Paris, 1975).Google Scholar

^{page 203 note 2} Head, Judith, ‘Sena Sugar Estates and Migrant Labour, Mozambique’, Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh, 1979.Google Scholar

^{page 204 note 1} Expresso (Lisbon), 23 03 1978.Google Scholar

^{page 204 note 2} The Economist (London), 1 04 1978.Google Scholar

^{page 205 note 1} The second meeting of the Frelimo Central Committee held in 1966 issued a directive to ‘develop production’ in response to these earlier shortcomings. See Frelimo, , Mozambique Revolution (Dar es Salaam), 27, 10–12 1961.Google Scholar

^{page 205 note 2} Darlib Support Group, ‘Interview with Joaquim Carvalho, Secretary of the Department of Production and Commerce’, Dar es Salaam, 1974, mimeographed.

^{page 205 note 3} Mozambique Institute, ‘Frelimo Social Development’, Dar es Salaam, 1971.

^{page 205 note 4} Daily News (Dar es Salaam), 4 05 1972.Google Scholar

^{page 206 note 1} Frelimo, , ‘Statement by Jorge Rebelo of Frelimo at the 915th Meeting of the Special Committee of 24’, 1973, mimeographed.Google Scholar

^{page 206 note 2} Adjali, Boubaker, ‘Interview with Marcelino dos Santos’, Liberation Support Movement, Richmond, Canada, 1971.Google Scholar

^{page 206 note 3} Viera, Sergio, ‘O Direito nas Zonas Libertades. Uma Conferência na Faculdade de Direito’, Maputo, 1977, mimeographed.Google Scholar

^{page 207 note 1} Frelimo, , Mozambique Revolution, 43, 04–06 1970.Google Scholar

^{page 207 note 2} See the Report of the 8th Meeting of the Central Committee in Tempo (Maputo), 293, 16 05 1976.Google Scholar

^{page 208 note 1} Departamento do Trabalho Ideologico, Frelimo, , Documentos Do 3° Congresso Da Frelimo (Maputo, 1977).Google Scholar

^{page 208 note 2} These statistics are taken from Ultramar, Ministério do, Éstatísticas Agrícolas de Moçambique (Lisbon, 1973).Google Scholar

^{page 208 note 3} ‘The Mozambican Miner’, 1977, p. 143.

^{page 209 note 1} United Nations, Assistance to Mozambique, ECOSAC, A/3/96 (New York, 1976).Google Scholar

^{page 209 note 2} VIAK, ‘National Transport Survey’, Maputo, 1978.

^{page 209 note 3} Wuyts, op.cit. p.30.

^{page 210 note 1} Sunday Telegraph (London), 9 09 1979,Google Scholar and the Agência de Informaçāode Moçambique, AIM Bulletin (Maputo), 01 1980.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 2} Rhodesia Herald (Salisbury), 27 06 1978.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 3} Financial Times (London), 8 09 1979.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 4} International Herald Tribune (Paris), 2 09 1979, and Financial Times, 8 September 1979.Google Scholar

^{page 210 note 5} Tempo, 1 August 1982.

^{page 211 note 1} Ibid. 7 March 1982.

^{page 212 note 1} Centro de Estudos Africanos, ‘Problemas de transformação rural na província de Gaza’, Maputo, 1979.

^{page 212 note 2} Centro de Estudos Africanos, ‘O trabalhador sazonal na transformação duma economia de plantações’, Maputo, 1981.

^{page 212 note 3} Anon, ‘Aspectos de utilização actual de pesticides’, Maputo, n.d.

^{page 213 note 1} Private communication to the author, Maputo, 4 August 1982.

^{page 213 note 2} Frelimo, , Relatório do 4° Congress, reported in Notícias (Maputo), 27 04 1983.Google Scholar

^{page 213 note 3} Ibid.

^{page 213 note 4} ‘Problemas de transformação rural na província de Gaza’, 1979.

^{page 214 note 1} Ibid. p. 79.

^{page 215 note 1} This agument is developed more fully in Kruks, Sonia and Wisner, Ben, ‘The State, the Party, and the Female Peasantry in Mozambique’, Maputo, 1981.Google Scholar

^{page 215 note 2} Voz da Revolução, 73, June 1981, pp. 32–3.

^{page 216 note 1} Relatório do 4° Congress – subsequent quotes are taken from this Frelimo report.

^{page 217 note 1} Private communication to the author, Maputo, 12 August 1982.

^{page 217 note 2} The Economist Intelligence Unit, Quarterly Economic Review of Tanzania, Mozambique (London), 10 1982, p. 6.Google Scholar

^{page 217 note 3} Ibid. pp. 22–3.

^{page 218 note 1} Lofchie, Michael F. and Commins, Stephen K., ‘Food Deficits and Agricultural Policies in Tropical Africa’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 20, 1, 03 1982, p. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 218 note 2} Africa Economic Digest (London), 30 10 1981, p. 5.Google Scholar

^{page 218 note 3} Agência de Informação de Moçambique, 23 March 1983.

^{page 218 note 4} Veloso, Jacinto, ‘Levantar e resolver os nossos problemas materiais’, in Tempo, 14 November 1982, p. 18.Google Scholar

^{page 218 note 5} Centro de Estudos Africanos, ‘Circuitos de troca e transporte no desenvolvimento do campo’, Maputo, 1981, p. 2.

^{page 219 note 1} Chipande, Alberto, ‘Reforçar a defesa e a vigilância imperativo de revolução’, in Tempo, 21 November 1982, p. 25.Google Scholar

^{page 219 note 2} Marelyn, Oscar, Wield, David, and Williams, Richard, ‘Notes on the Political and Organisational Offensive in Mozambique and its Relationship to Agricultural Policy’, in Review of African Political Economy (London), 24, 1982, p. 119.Google Scholar

^{page 219 note 3} Agência de Informação de Moçambique, 1 February 1983.

^{page 219 note 4} Notícias, 15 March 1983.

^{page 219 note 5} Ibid. 1 April 1983.

^{page 219 note 6} AIM Bulletin, 78, December 1982.

^{page 220 note 1} On this point, see O'Laughlin, Bridget, ‘A Questão Agrária em Moçambique’, in Estudos Moçambicanos, 3, 1981, pp. 9–32.Google Scholar

Article contents

State Intervention in Agriculture: the Mozambican Experience

Extract

Access options

References

Save article to Kindle

Save article to Dropbox

Save article to Google Drive

Reply to: Submit a response

Your details

You have entered the maximum number of contributors

Conflicting interests