I. Livingstone and H.W. Ord, Agricultural Economics for Tropical
Africa, Heinemann, London, 1981.
There is no dearth of textbooks explaining neoclassical principles of economics In the
West. They form the staple for the students and teachers of Africa as well as Asia.
To give them a native flavour some shrewd authors give titles like Economics for
Third World, Economics for Eastern Africa, Western Africa Economics or even narrow
country-speCific titles.   These textbooks are general textbooks with 'local' examples.
If the example drawn is Coffee price for Uganda, it IS Copper for Zambia.             But
Economics is societal and historical and not necessarily universal. Many textbook
writers as also the mute consumers of their output, however, treat Economics as If It
is based on universal principles.     The book under review IS no exception from the
general run of textbooks available in Africa though this one deals with the applied
branch of Agricultural Economics with particular reference to tropical AfrICa. Indeed
economists know too well that product differentiation can come with changes in brand
names alone. One is inclined to think this way when one reads some other textbooks
by the same authors. Card players know well that with a given packet you can have
umpteen combinations.
The book IS divided into five parts, viz: economic development, supply and demand,
production economics and decision-making, agriculture and marketing and agriculture
in development planning. The first three parts covering 13 chapters spanning 177
pages and the last Chapter on 'Agriculture in development planning' (notwithstanding
the title) are too general for a book on Agncultural Economics. Only 100 pages out
of the three hundred page book are devoted to agriculture in tropical Africa.        The
theoretICal background IS too heavy and redur"jant for the core of the book. The gate
IS bigger than the house and does not prove utilitarian either.
These authors (lJke several writers on agricultural economics) have yielded to the
temptatIOn of treating the cultivator and his problem of resource acquisition and
utlllsatlOn on the analogy of the competitive firm. The nature        of the economic
relatIOnships in agrarian societies (e.g. tribal mode of production In Africa) be far
removed from the general theOries of economics as expounded in the 14 chapters of
this volume.     Discerning teachers and students get Confused when books like this
present theOries and proceed to facts whICh have no bearing on them. (Incidentally I
must acknowledge that the first chapters though Irrelevant for thiS work IS well
written and reveal considerable pedagogical skill and mastery of the subject). There is
a reference to share cropping in Chapter 8. But share cropping is not as Simple as
sharing the marginal product on a fixed ratio between the landlord and tenant. A
diagrammatic    representation   of It adds to elegance, but abstracts from the
explOItative relatl0ns that eXisted under the feudal and capitalist modes of publicatIOn
in several parts of the world.        In Chapter 9 the authors observe that. "(linear
programming) has become an essential tool of farm management and agricultural
extension services in African countries today". I do not think they are correct. But
they proceed "we shall therefore use It to explain how our entrepreneur might
endeavour to allocate given resources to produce the optimum combination of crops".
(Page 110). The assumptions made have no empirICal validity. In Chapter 10 on
'choice of Technique',      the    author    states "Within the category of transport
services squeezing twelve people into a taxI IS a popular form of appropriate
technol~gy in Africa". (p.127). The teachers of Africa will have to face the challenge
of presenting relevant models at a more fundamental level of concepts, categories and
the nature of economic relationships rather than copying or modlfymg neoclaSSical
models.
                                          105


The four chapters that deal with the facts of agricultural economics besides being
general do not do full justice to the topics dealt with.             In chapter 14 the
characteristics and ty;>es of agriculture are catalogued followed by a discussion on the
peasant farmer and vent - for - surplus expansion in Uganda and West Afnca. From
the 'vent' the jump is for a brief discussion on the economics of subsistence
agriculture followed by a lengthy discussion on various aspects of Kenyan agnculture.
The question of scale economies and the hypothesis that small farms are more
efficient in Asian and African agriculture needs discussion and documentation.       The
fifteenth chapter titled "Topics in Agricultural Development" covers ten topics, viz:
the supply response of peasant producers (hardly two pages with little empirical data
to prove or disprove anything), income distribution and rural stratification land tenure
and land reforms In Africd (Jess than two pages), transformation versus improvement
strategies, approaches to extension, the economics of mechanisation, settlement
scheme irrigation, socialist transformation schemes and economics of pastoralism.
Most of them are relevant, but a strange assortment to be compressed into a chapter.
Chapter 16 opens thus: "Whereas the value of agricultural producers and factory
workers is readily appreciated, there is often misunderstanding of the role of traders
and middlemen, and of the functions of the marketing system generally" (p.227). I
do not think the authors have succeeded in dispelling this misunderstanding either in
this chapter or in the one that follows. The structure of marketing, the price spread
between consumers and products, how a small number of big buyers exploit the large
number of small unorganised peasant producers are not fully brought out in the
diSCUSSIOns. While there is a paragraph on UNCTAD, there is none on Lome
Convention.
There are serious omissions. Institutional reforms, land reforms in particular, farm
production economics, technological change in African agriculture, the e~onomics of
peasant farmIng, food aid and security, agricultural         resource use, economics of
croppIng pattern, farm labour are some of the serious omissions. A casual merit or
 treatment in a cavalier fashion deserves no praise. It is high time the teachers of
agncultural    economics collectively or individually address themselves to the
challenging task of producing textbooks relevant to the region.
M.A. Oommen
Department of Economics
University of Botswana