Patterns of Market Intervention in Agrarian Africa

This paper summarizes recent interpretations of government behavior toward agriculture in Africa and seeks to assess their credibility through empirical testing. With respect to food crops, governments are seen as intervening on behalf of urban interests. For cash crops, they are viewed as manipulating prices in order to tax, both so as to collect public revenues and so as to redistribute purchasing power to the consumers of imports. Ideological preferences also influence government behavior.