Tobacco, Transformation and Development Dilemmas from Central Africa

This book takes the reader through the expansion, restructuring and possible salvation of Malawi's main industry, tobacco. Malawi has been dependent on tobacco exports for a century, but now, with demand for Malawian tobacco declining fast, the country needs to diversify rapidly. The authors combine an innovative range of theory and methods to provide a comprehensive and incisive analysis of the dilemmas faced by countries which still rely on a limited number of agricultural commodities in the 21st century. This work will be ideal for scholars and researchers interested in political economy and African development.

1. Introduction. - 2. Smallholder Burley Reform Process and Maize Production in Malawi 1990 2005. - 3. A Comparative Value Chain Analysis of Smallholder Production - 2003/4 and 2009/10. - 4. Traceability and the Global Tobacco Value Chain. - 5. Brokers and Bondage at the Coalface of Contract Farming. - 6. Competition and the Institutional Architecture for Contract Farming. - 7. A Very Short Political Economy of Malawi. - 8. Conclusion.