Organization and Performance of Cotton Sectors in Africa ... - infoDev

1970s. Until the mid-1950s, the Uganda Lint Marketing Board was alsoresponsible for the export of Tanganyikan lint.The cotton sector in Mozambique was also based on smallholder productionfor most of its history, with the exception of 1965–75, when growingopposition to the colonial government in the north (the cotton growing heartland)prompted the government to promote production on large Europeancontrolledfarms. By contrast, large-scale farmers of European origin droveearly sector development in Zimbabwe. At least until 1980, the large-scale farmershad the political power to advocate for the establishment and maintenanceof research and marketing systems to support their production activities.ESA Cotton Sectors in the Post-Independence YearsFrom 1960 to 1990, two main changes occurred in ESA cotton sectors. First,countries achieving independence transferred control over the sector, with thegovernment (or government-controlled organizations) playing an increasingrole in seed cotton purchase and ginning at the expense of the private sector.The purported reason for these changes was typically to support smallholdercotton farmers. At the same time, performance declined seriously in all countriesexcept Zimbabwe.In both Uganda and Tanzania, regional cooperative unions replaced Asianbusinessmen as buyers and ginners of seed cotton. The cooperative movementstarted as a member-driven phenomenon, but politicians soon exerted governmentcontrol. In Uganda, cooperatives were given monopoly rights over seedcotton purchase and ginning in 1969, with the Lint Marketing Board handlingthe marketing of lint and seed and regulating the cooperatives. In Tanzania,cooperatives displaced Asian businessmen during the 1960s, initially withfarmer support, then through force of law. At the same time, the governmentattempted to control the powerful Victoria Federation of Cooperative Unions(seen as an alternative center of power to the ruling party) by replacing it withthe Nyanza Cooperative Union. State-imposed cooperatives performed poorlyin a number of the country’s main cash crops, thus cooperative unions wereabolished in 1976 and a parastatal Tanzania Cotton Authority assumed responsibilityfor crop purchases from village-based cooperative societies.Cotton production experienced a precipitate collapse in both Uganda andMozambique in the mid-1970s. With the seizure of power by Idi Amin, lintproduction in Uganda plummeted from 78,000 tons in 1972 to just 14,000 tonsin 1976, undermined by poor policies, escalating costs and mismanagement atthe cooperatives and the Lint Marketing Board. Similarly, with independencein Mozambique in 1975, seed cotton production fell from a peak of over140,000 tons in 1973 to below 40,000 tons in 1976. Production by commercialfarmers collapsed to around 20 percent of its immediate pre-independencepeak, and smallholder production declined sharply, discouraged by disastrouscentral planning policies. With the outbreak of civil war in both countries,HISTORICAL BACKGROUND AND RECENT INSTITUTIONAL EVOLUTION 39