Agriculture Subsidies for Better Outcomes : Options For Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe has a long history of providing subsidies to farmers. The policies that have defined these subsidies have changed over time and led periodically to significant and unsustainable pressure on fiscal resources. Agricultural subsidy costs are...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2020
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/170671592825344676/Agriculture-Subsidies-for-Better-Outcomes-Options-For-Zimbabwe http://hdl.handle.net/10986/34147 |
| Summary: | Zimbabwe has a long history of providing
subsidies to farmers. The policies that have defined these
subsidies have changed over time and led periodically to
significant and unsustainable pressure on fiscal resources.
Agricultural subsidy costs are a main driver of recent
fiscal imbalances and inflationary pressure. The Ministry of
Finance and Economic Development is making efforts to bring
them under control while maintaining adequate support to the
agricultural sector during a significant drought and other
structural challenges. This report contributes to the
identification and scoping of options for redesigning
agricultural subsidies in Zimbabwe so that their objectives,
a mix of national food security, smallholder access to
production technology, and trade balance strengthening can
be pursued at significantly reduced fiscal costs. The first
part of the report reviews informative cross-country surveys
of agricultural subsidy programs (mostly for inputs) over
the past decade. The second part briefly traces the
phase-by-phase evolution of Zimbabwe’s agricultural subsidy
policies. The third section reviews the cost of agricultural
subsidies. The fourth section summarizes preliminary
quantitative analysis of the impacts of Command Agriculture,
inclusive of subsidies on maize yields. The last section
introduces options and recommendations for bringing subsidy
costs under control while maintaining broad-based support
for farmer productivity and agricultural sector development. |
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