Abstract
Rice shortages are a frequent problem in West Africa. During one of my visits to Sierra Leone, newspaper headlines screamed the panic and anger felt by local residents: ‘Rice … Rice … Rice … Everywhere, Yet Not a Single Grain to See to Buy. There Will NEVER be an End to our Rice “WAHALA” in This Country!’1 In Sierra Leone and the rest of rice-dependent West Africa, rice supplies are a highly political issue, and thus rice projects like China’s have both economic and political importance.
The development of agriculture is an urgent problem facing the developing nations. If this problem is not solved, the developing countries can achieve little progress.
Chinese Premier Zhao Ziyang, 1983
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Notes
David Brown, ‘Bureaucracy as an Issue in Third World Management: An African Case Study,’ Public Administration and Development, vol. 9, (1989) pp. 369-80.
Herbert Werlin, ‘Decentralization and Culture: The Case of Monrovia, Liberia,’ Public Administration and Development, vol. 10 (1990), p. 254
John W. Bruce, ‘Critical Land Tenure Issues in Liberia,’ Land Tenure Center, University of Wisconsin, unpublished paper, June 1984, p. 1.
Jeanette Carter, et al., ‘Social Institutional Profile: Management Practices and Prospects, A Study of the Liberian Agricultural Sector,’ Institute for Development Anthropology, Binghamton, NY, 1984, p. 2.
Thomas P. Wrubel, ‘Liberia: The Dynamics of continuity’, The Journal of Modern African Studies, 9, 2 (1971) p. 192.
R. W. Clower, G., Dalton, M. Hartiwz, and A. Walters, Growth Without Development: An Economic Survey of Liberia (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1966).
Christopher Clapham, ‘Liberia,’ in Donai B. Cruise O’Brien, John Dunn, and Richard Rathbone (eds), Contemporary West African States (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989) p. 100.
Robert Bates, Markets and States in Tropical Africa: The Political Basis of Agricultural Policies (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981).
James Butty, ‘The Liberian Green Revolution Initiative: A Policy Analysis Perspective,’ Liberia Forum 3/4, 1987, p. 41.
Wu Fei Lo, ‘Brief Outline of the Activities of the Chinese Agricultural Mission in Liberia,’ in WARDA, Rice Project Managers Seminar (1975), vol. 5, Proceedings, (Monrovia, Liberia: WARDA, January 1976).
Monke states that the Special Project hectarage had declined by 1976 to 360 hectares, and the Expanded Projects had, by 1975, developed only about 500 hectares. Eric Monke, ‘Rice Policy in Liberia,’ in Scott, R. Pearson, J. Dirck Stryker, and Charles P. Humphreys et al. (eds), Rice in West Africa: Policy and Economics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1981) p. 121.
E. Lord ‘A Perspective Study on Self-Sufficiency in Rice Production in Five Countries of West Africa (The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone)’ United Nations Development Advisory Team, ECA/UNDAT II, Addis Ababa, December 1975, p. 35.
See, for example, WARDA’s ‘Comments on the Feasibility Report Prepared by IFAGRARIA, Special Rice Project in Gbonta and Piata areas of Bong County,’ (Monrovia, Liberia: WARDA, n. d. [probably 1976]). Pre-feasibility or pilot studies were undertaken in Bong County and at Saye-Dugbe and Cestos under LIRICO, with an English consortium of Taylor-Woodrow and Dalgety; the People’s Republic of China; and the Italian Government under the Italian consultant firm Inifagraria. None were followed through.
Government of Liberia, Ministry of Agriculture, Office of the Assistant Minister for Technical Service, ‘A Briefing Paper, Chinese Agriculture Mission Participation in the Agriculture Program, Ministry of Agriculture, 1977-1983,’ Monrovia, 1983.
WARDA, ‘Project in Liberia,’ and ‘Mechanized Farming Hits Record Harvest in Bong County,’ New Liberian, 8 September 1983, p. 1.
At one point, the government stated that Kpatawee was intended to be a ‘demonstration site for local farmers,’ yet this never happened. Liberia, ‘Country Economic Memorandum,’ prepared for UNDP-sponsored Donors Conference, October 1983, p. 139.
WARDA, ‘A Review of the Liberian Rice Seed Multiplication Programme,’ Monrovia, Liberia, July 1983 (mimeo).
See, for example, William Reno, Corruption and State Politics in Sierra Leone (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995)
Sahr John Kpundeh, Politics and Corruption in Africa: A Case Study of Sierra Leone (University Press of America, 1995).
World Bank, World Development Report 1996 (New York: Oxford University Press for the World Bank, 1996) p. 188.
Consortium for International Development, ‘Agricultural Sector Report for Sierra Leone,’ Logan, Utah, prepared for USAID, June 1982, p. 18.
Alpha Lavaliere, ‘Government and Opposition in Sierra Leone, 1968-1978,’ Sierra Leone Studies at Birmingham, proceedings of the Fourth Birmingham Sierra Leone Studies Symposium, 13-15 July 1985, Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1987, p. 78.
Christopher Clapham, Liberia and Sierra Leone: An Essay in Comparative Politics (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1976) p. 9.
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), ‘Fourth Country Programme for Sierra Leone,’ New York, 22 October 1987, p. 3.
S. M. Funna, ‘Sierra Leone: Economic Structure and Recent Performance,’ Sierra Leone Studies in Birmingham (Birmingham: University of Birmingham, 1987) p. 16.
Gary A. Walker, ‘Institutional Development in the Agriculture Sector: A case Study of Sierra Leone,’ International Management and Development Group, Ltd., Washington, DC, 15 July 1989, pp. 9, 12. Although Sierra Leone has reorganized its agricultural ministry and given it various names over the past three decades (Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry; Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, etc.), this study will refer to the Ministry in various years simply as the Ministry of Agriculture, or the Ministry.
Richard Longhurst, Samura Kamara and Joseph Mensurah, ‘Structural Adjustment and Vulnerable Groups in Sierra Leone,’ IDS Bulletin, 1988, vol. 19, no. 1, p. 27.
John Weeks, Development Strategy and the Economy of Sierra Leone (New York: St Martin’s Press, 1992) p. 91.
In 1988, for example, the commission for buying agents amounted to only two percent of the producer price for coffee; five percent for cocoa; fifteen percent for palm kernel; three percent for ginger, and twelve percent for maize; an additional road freight allowance of $.03/mile/ton was offered for all produce. Sierra Leone Produce Marketing Board, ‘Circular to All Buying Agents,’ Freetown, 10 February 1988.
Temne farmers had some thirty years experience in tidal mangrove swamp cultivation, indicating that it had been introduced in the Scarcies area in the late 1800s. A. C. Pillai, Senior Agricultural Instructor, GBAPP, to The Director of Agriculture, Sierra Leone, ‘Further Report on Irrigation for and Cultivation of Rice in Sierra Leone,’ Freetown, 26 October 1922.
Dunstan Spencer, ‘Rice Policy in Sierra Leone,’ in Scott Pearson, J. Dirck Stryker, and Charles Humphries (eds), Rice in West Africa: Policy and Economics (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1981) p. 186
R. G. Saylor, The Economic System of Sierra Leone (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1967).
Dunstan S. C. Spencer, Derek Byerlee and Steven Franzel, ‘Annual Costs, Returns and Seasonal Labor Requirements for Selected Farm and Nonfarm Enterprises in Sierra Leone,’ African Rural Economy Program, working paper no. 27, (East Lansing, MI: Michigan State University, May 1979) p. 21.
The Program of African Studies, National Chengchi University, Agreements on Technical Cooperation Between The Republic of China and African States (Taiwan: National Chengchi University, July 1974) pp. 195-6.
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Vernon W. Ruttan, ‘Integrated Rural Development Programs: A Skeptical Perspective’ International Development Review v. 17, n. 4 (1975) pp. 9-16.
Annette L. Binnendijk, ‘Economic and Financial Evaluation of Liberia’s Lofa Agricultural Development Project,’ Rural Africana 22 (Spring 1985), pp. 25-62.
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R. M. Dakona, ‘Report on Chinese Loan Recovery,’ MANR Chinese project files, Lambayama, Kenema, 7 April 1981.
A. R. Stobbs, The Soils and Geography of the Boliland Region of Sierra Leone, published for the Government of Sierra Leone (Margate, England: The Thanet Press, 1963).
China AGRICON, ‘Rolako Rice Production Feasibility Study,’ prepared for Mr. Jamil Said Mohammed, 7 September 1985.
Sierra Leone, MANR Planning Unit, PEMSU, ‘Economic and Technical Cooperation Between the Government of the People’s Republic of China and The Government of the Republic of Sierra Leone - in the Agricultural Sector,’ September 1983.
See, for example, Arnold Hughes, ‘From Colonialism to Confederation: The Gambian Experience of Independence, 1965-1982,’ in R. Cohen (ed.), African Islands and Enclaves (Beverly Hills and London: Sage Publishers, 1983) pp. 57-80
Steven Radelet, ‘Reform Without Revolt: The Political Economy of Economic Reform in The Gambia,’ World Development v. 20, n. 8 (August 1992) pp. 1087-99.
Hughes, ‘From Colonialism,’ and A. F. Robertson, The Dynamics of Productive Relationships: African Share Contracts in Comparative Perspective (New York: Cambridge University Press, 1987).
Arnold Hughes, ‘The Gambia: Recent History,’ Africa South of the Sahara 1990 (Europa Publications Ltd,. August 1990).
Malcom F. McPherson, and Stephen C. Radelet, ‘Economic Reform in The Gambia: Policies, Politics, Foreign Aid and Luck,’ Harvard Institute for International Development Discussion Paper No. 300, June 1989, p. 18. The main tribes are Mandinka 37 percent; Fula 17 percent and Wolof 13 percent.
Deputy Project Manager, Agricultural Development Project, ‘Report on Irrigation Infrastructure,’ addressed to Agriculture Director, Ministry of Agriculture, 10 October 1975, p. 1.
Agency for International Development (AID), ‘Gambia: Country Development Strategy Statement FY 1984,’ August 1982, Banjul, The Gambia, p. 18.
The Economist Intelligence Unit, Senegal, The Gambia, Guinea-Bissau, Cape Verde, Country Reports, Quarterly Report No. 4, 1989, p. 20.
World Bank, ‘ADP First Quarterly Progress Report,’ Sapu, The Gambia, 1974.
World Bank, Operations Evaluation Dept. ‘Impact Evaluation Report: The Gambia Agricultural Development Project’ (Washington, 13 June 1984). Official estimates have sometimes claimed 1000 hectares for the project.
Chinese Agrotechnical Team, ‘Report to the Ministry of Agriculture,’ Cape St. Mary’s, The Gambia, 21 December 1975.
People’s Republic of China and The Republic of The Gambia, ‘Minutes of Talks on Implementation of Agricultural Co-operation Project Between China and The Gambia,’ draft received by the Department of Agriculture, Cape St Mary’s on 26 January 1976.
Chinese Agro-Technical Team, ‘Report on the Work of the Chinese Agro-tech Team (1975–1979), Sapu, 6 November 1979.
Taake, ‘Promoting Non-Alignment and Self-Reliance: China’s Development Policy’ D & C Development and Cooperation (Germany) no. 5/6 (Sept.–Dec. 1994).
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© 1998 Deborah Bräutigam
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Bräutigam, D. (1998). The State and Agriculture in West Africa. In: Chinese Aid and African Development. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230374300_4
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