Based on a survey conducted in 1984, the authors discuss the nutritional conditions prevailing among farming households engaged in irrigated rice cultivation in the Kano plain, Nyanza Province,... Show moreBased on a survey conducted in 1984, the authors discuss the nutritional conditions prevailing among farming households engaged in irrigated rice cultivation in the Kano plain, Nyanza Province, Kenya. The survey covered four groups reflecting different degrees of participation in and/or dependence on irrigated rice cultivation: non-rice growers, individual rice growers participating in small schemes, non-resident tenants at large schemes, and resident tenants at large schemes. The observed differences in nutritional status between the four groups were above all related to differences in their resource base. The group with the smallest resource base, the resident tenants at the large irrigation schemes (Ahero and West Kano) showed the poorest results in all respects. The survey results do not substantiate the assumption made at the start of the irrigation schemes, that the livelihood of rural families can be fully covered by means of cash farming. Show less
The author argues that Zambian rural anthropology is on the decline, and that this decline is related to the reliance, among anthropologists, on the tribe and ethnic group as the basic unit of... Show moreThe author argues that Zambian rural anthropology is on the decline, and that this decline is related to the reliance, among anthropologists, on the tribe and ethnic group as the basic unit of study in the past; that the one way to escape from the tribal model on the analytical plane without sacrificing the subjects' own organization of their experience, is to try to explain this experience as a form of consciousness emerging out of the dialectics of political incorporation and, even more fundamentally, the penetration of capitalism, in other words, the articulation of capitalism and a non-capitalist mode of production. The chapter is based on research among the Nkoya of western Zambia, an earlier version of it was published in 'Journal of Southern African Studies', vol. 8, no. 1, (1981/82), pages 51-81. Show less
Summ.: An inventory of government-regulated producer prices in tropical Africa for the period 1960-1980. Statistical data are presented for 29 countries and 11 major crops (seven export crops and... Show moreSumm.: An inventory of government-regulated producer prices in tropical Africa for the period 1960-1980. Statistical data are presented for 29 countries and 11 major crops (seven export crops and four food crops). A review of price movements indicate that: there has been a general and rapid rise in official producer prices since the mid-1970s; official producer prices have fluctuated less than export prices, but the degree of stabilization differs for the various crops; in most countries, the producer's share of the export price has decreased; rising prices of consumer goods and agricultural inputs have furthermore eroded the value of producer prices, but in this respect the late 1970s are an exception. Show less
