book

Institutional economics perspectives on African agricultural development

by Johann F. Kirsten, ed.,
Andrew Dorward, ed.,
Colin Poulton, ed. and
Nick Vink, ed.
Publisher(s): international food policy research institute (ifpri)
Open Access
Citation
Kirsten, Johann F., ed.; Dorward, Andrew R., ed.; Poulton, Colin, ed.; Vink, Nick, ed. 2009. Institutional economics perspectives on African agricultural development. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). http://dx.doi.org/10.2499/9780896297814BK

Professionals in economics and agricultural economics have been paying increasing attention to institutional issues and have developed strong concepts and analytical tools to do so. The core message of this book is that this new focus is particularly relevant to the problems of agricultural development in Africa. As a result, there is a need to consolidate the lessons learned into a textbook to illustrate the relevance and application of these concepts and tools. The core purpose of the book is, therefore, to provide an accessible text on the economics of institutions relevant to agricultural development in the African context. However, the book cannot be regarded as exhaustive: it should be used by the discerning student as a text to be supplemented by the reading lists and the large volume of literature cited throughout the volume.

Table of Contents

Part 1: Theoretical and Conceptual Framework
Chapter 1: Institutions and the Agricultural Development Challenge in Africa
Chapter 2: Introduction to the Economics of Institutions
Chapter 3: A Framework for Analyzing Institutions

Part 2: Exchange in Goods and Services
Chapter 4: Exchange, Contracts, and Property-Rights Enforcement
Chapter 5: Coordination for Market Development
Chapter 6: The Role of Trust in Contract Enforcement: An Analysis of Smallholder Farmers and Sugar Millers in Swaziland
Chapter 7: An Institutional Economic Appraisal of Worker Equity Schemes in Agriculture
Chapter 8: From Statutory to Private Contracts: Emerging Institutional Arrangements in the Smallholder Tea Sector in Malawi
Chapter 9: Institutional Changes and Transaction Costs: Exchange Arrangements in Tanzania’s Coffee Market
Chapter 10: A Transaction-Cost Approach to Enterprise Modeling and Coordination between Small Growers and a Large Firm: The Case of Mussel Mariculture in South Africa
Chapter 11: An Analysis of Animal Healthcare Service Delivery in Kenya
Chapter 12: Networks and Informal Mutual Support in 15 Ethiopian Villages

Part 3: Natural Resource Management
Chapter 13: Understanding Property Rights in Land and Natural Resource Management
Chapter 14: Coordination in Natural Resource Management
Chapter 15: What Happens during the Creation of Private Property? Subdividing Group Ranches in Kenya’s Maasailand
Chapter 16: Institutional Change to Promote a Rental Market for Cropland in the Communal Areas of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Chapter 17: Collective Action in the Management of Canal Irrigation Systems: The Doho Rice Scheme in Uganda
Chapter 18: Gender, Resource Rights, and Wetland Rice Productivity in Burkina Faso

Part 4: An Institutional Perspective on the State: Its Role and Challenge
Chapter 19: Agricultural Research
Chapter 20: A New Institutional Economic Analysis of the State and Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa