Regional food security and agricultural policy in southern Africa: A challenge of policy conversion in diverse settings

Regional food security is viewed as one of the major challenges for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries and the important role of agriculture in this challenge has been highlighted. This article confirms these notions, but continues to argue the complexity and diversity of the region, the importance of creating agricultural policy conversion and harmonisation, despite this diverse setting, and the parameters for agriculture to support food security in the region. Timmer's agricultural 'growth' model is adapted and applied to the southern African region to create a framework for such conversion.     

International trade and agricultural production: Evidence from the Southern African Development Community sub-region

Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries have undertaken substantial reforms in market liberalisation policies and regional integration initiatives. Theory suggests that trade can affect output through the exploitation of comparative advantage, increasing return to scale, liberalisation policies and technology. This work investigates the impact of agricultural exports to, machinery and chemical imports from and tariffs on agricultural products by total partners to the Southern African Customs' Union, SADC, sub-Saharan Africa and the rest of the world on agricultural production. Following Hausman tests, three panel fixed-effect models are estimated. The first is for aggregate machinery imports, chemicals imports and agricultural exports. The second is for disaggregated exports and imports according to the respective destination and source regions above. The third is for aggregate imports and disaggregated tariffs implemented by the various export destination regions toward the SADC. The results agree with the theory that international trade is good for development. Agricultural market expansion through export opportunities and access to inputs are significant sources of agricultural production enhancement in the SADC region. Tariffs barriers to agricultural exports are found to be significant impediments to agricultural production. However, the disparity of effects by export destination and the insignificance of the impact of trade with the rest of Africa are worth emphasising.     

Is there a link between BRIC foreign direct investment and SADC export performance?

The BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) countries have agreed to strengthen their economic ties, thus paving the way for enhanced trade and investment performance. South Africa's strategic value in BRICS is that it is a gateway to the opportunity-rich Southern African Development Community (SADC). By using South Africa as a production hub for exports to the surrounding region, foreign investors would have ready access to neighbouring markets. This article addresses the question of whether, and in what ways, foreign direct investment (FDI) from the BRIC (Brazil, Russia, India and China) countries to the SADC influences the SADC's export performance. A series of empirical analyses revealed a positive causation between BRIC FDI and SADC exports, offering a clear incentive for the SADC to rejuvenate its trade and investment policies and structures, and strengthen its ties with BRIC countries in the interests of attracting more FDI and building a strong and sustainable export sector.     

Mobile entrepreneurship: Informal sector cross-border trade and street trade in South Africa

This article presents the results of a study on the participation of non-South Africans in the handicraft/curio sector of street trade in South Africa in informal sector cross-border trade. The findings provide an introduction to the largely unexplored phenomenon of informal sector cross-border trade between South Africa and neighbouring states and challenge some of the common myths about non-South African street traders which pervade public discourses around migration. The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is presently involved in prolonged and contentious negotiations to establish a free trade area for the region based on the SADC protocol on trade and development. At the same time, against a backdrop of anti-immigrant rhetoric, the South African government is developing a new migration policy. The article argues that informal cross-border entrepreneurs should not be disadvantaged by the renegotiation of regional trade agreements and the reformulation of South Africa's new migration policy.     

Free Trade Agreements and the SADC Economies

Countries in southern Africa have engaged in a variety of tradeliberalisation initiatives such as the European Union (EU)–SouthAfrica Free Trade Agreement (FTA), the EU's ‘Everythingbut Arms’ (EBA) initiative to eliminate trade barriersagainst imports from the least developed countries and a potentialFTA among Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries.In this paper we use a multi-country computable general equilibrium(CGE) model to analyse the impact of trade liberalisation inthe region. First, we analyse the FTA between South Africa andthe EU. Then, we consider how the rest of southern Africa mightrespond: (i) by enforcing an SADC FTA; (ii) by exploiting theadvantages of unilateral access to the EU in addition to anSADC FTA; and (iii) by entering an FTA with the EU and otherSADC countries. The scenarios are ordered such that the SADCcountries pursue increased trade liberalisation. We find thatunder all FTA arrangements the increased total imports fromFTA partners exceeds the reduction in imports from non-FTA partners— the FTAs examined are all net trade creating. Some SADCeconomies are slightly hurt by the FTA between the EU and SouthAfrica, while others gain slightly. Overall, the agreement isnot a beggar-thy-neighbour policy. We also find that unilateralaccess to the EU is more beneficial for SADC countries thanan SADC FTA because the SADC countries trade more with the EUthan with each other. However, reciprocal reforms under an EU–SADCFTA dominate unilateral access to the EU because they requiremore structural adjustment in the SADC countries. Finally, wefind that South Africa is not large enough to serve as a growthpole for the region. Access to EU markets provides substantiallybigger gains for the other SADC countries than access to SouthAfrica.     

IS THERE POLICY SPACE TO PROTECT SOUTH AFRICAN AGRICULTURE?

The aim of this paper is to assess the amount of “policy space” available to increase tariff protection in South African agriculture. To this end, formal definitions for agricultural produce, actual import data, applied tariff data and bound tariff rates and tariff quota information were used to investigate the extent to which it is possible and feasible to increase tariffs. The analysis shows that in general the policy space available to South African agriculture is limited because of, among others, WTO binding and treaty obligations under the EU and SADC agreements. Furthermore, it does not make policy sense to increase protection on most other products.     

Key issues in regional growth and integration in Southern Africa

ABSTRACT

The decade to 2015 saw rapid growth in trade between Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Much of this growth reflected South African exports to its neighbours of diversified manufactured goods to meet growing urban consumption and to supply inputs to mining and infrastructure. While most SADC countries, aside from South Africa, grew quite rapidly over this period, their exports remained oriented to a narrow range of minerals and agricultural commodities destined to go outside the region. Drawing from a series of sectoral studies, we assess key regional issues including the investment and production decisions of firms whose operations stretch across borders, and consider the implications for a bottom-up integration agenda that could build productive capabilities across countries. Our evaluation highlights the importance of the spread of supermarkets, the need to address transport and logistics, and value chains whose competitive advantages are inherently regional, as in the cases of poultry and mining.     

AN ANALYSIS OF MACRO‐ECONOMIC CONVERGENCE IN SADC1

One of the goals of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is macro‐economic convergence leading to monetary unification and a single central bank. This goal is aligned with the goal of the African Union to build a monetary union for the entire continent in stages, starting with each of the subregions, of which SADC forms one important region. Despite views to the contrary, the current degree of compliance with the Maastricht criteria for convergence and membership of the European Union, shows that the challenges facing a SADC monetary union would not be insurmountable if the convergence criteria are viewed as permanent goals, rather than preconditions.     

Reviving Foreign Direct Investments in Southern Africa: Constraints and Policies

Abstract: The objective of this paper is to examine the factors that determine the inflow of foreign direct investment (FDI) to SADC member states, which is critical for introducing widespread technological change, complementing domestic investment, improving the agility and competitiveness of firms, and providing access to skills and global markets. Since the end of apartheid in 1994, FDI flows to SADC have improved significantly increasing from an annual average of only $660 million in 1985–95 to about $5.9 billion in 2000–04. A number of countries in the region have taken additional steps to reform their policy stance in order to boost prospects for increased FDI inflows, while South Africa has now become an important growth pole for attracting foreign investment to the region. However, despite the economic and institutional reforms, especially by some of the low‐income countries in the region, the flow of FDI to SADC member states remains low and concentrated in few countries and sectors. The paper identifies a number of factors constraining FDI inflows, including the small size of the regional economy, persistent macroeconomic uncertainty in some important economies, high administrative barriers, inadequate physical infrastructure, weak financial systems, and growing perception of corruption. The paper argues that SADC member states need to strengthen efforts to enhance policy frameworks, both individually and collectively, in order to make the region attractive for foreign investors. More progress is required on improving the efficiency of institutions, macroeconomic policy co‐ordination and harmonization, opening up to trade, strengthening energy, transport and telecommunications infrastructure, putting more resources in developing local skills, reducing bureaucratic red tape and curbing corruption. Importantly, SADC member states should avoid heated competition or “bidding wars” for FDI, where countries seek to outbid each other in offering fiscal and financial subsidies to attract foreign investors. Competition for FDI between neighbouring countries is not only wasteful and costly, but may also weaken regional co‐operation and integration. Co‐operation at a SADC level may therefore help avoid costly bidding wars.     

CORPORATE TAX RATES IN THE SADC REGION: DETERMINANTS AND POLICY IMPLICATIONS

Since the 1990s the SADC region has closely followed declining trends that occurred in the industrialised world in terms of corporate tax rates. The main purpose of this paper is to find appropriate explanations behind these trends as experienced in the SADC region. A cross‐section panel, including the so‐called Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR), is applied to uncover the main determinants of corporate tax rates in the region. The main findings of the paper acknowledge the vulnerability of corporate tax rates to global influence. The presence‐of‐trade variable relating to openness and international pressure takes precedence in the determination of corporate tax rates. The results indicate that higher trade ratios mean lower statutory corporate rates as international influence intensifies. It also tends to confirm the region's dependency on trade for tax revenues, but also its ability to still attract tax revenues from capital flows. Some evidence exists in terms of an association between the government expenditure‐GDP ratio and the statutory and average corporate tax rates, although this is not definitive. The paper re‐emphasises the importance of international pressure in terms of future tax policy‐making in the SADC region but also opens an avenue for further tax co‐operation efforts.     

Would a single regional visa encourage tourist arrivals in southern Africa?

Although many studies have been done of factors impeding Africa's development as a tourism destination, few have focused on southern Africa, and to date none have questioned whether the current visa requirements affect the region's tourism industry. This paper investigates the potential impact of the so-called Univisa, a single visa for the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region proposed by SADC and the Regional Tourism Organisation of Southern Africa. It examines the possible effect of visa requirements on a destination's accessibility and visitor numbers. Two surveys revealed that inbound and outbound tour operators were relatively positive about the benefits the proposed Univisa would bring, but were concerned about other factors hindering tourism development in the region. The study revealed the complexities of a regional visa and found that even though a regional visa might alleviate some problems, it cannot be seen as an answer to the slow development of tourism in this region.     

Relationship between foreign capital flows,domestic investment and savings in the SADC region

The importance of foreign capital in the domestic economy cannot be underestimated as it bridges the gap between domestic capital demand and supply. Given this background the paper studies the relationship between the different types of foreign capital flows in the Southern Africa Development Region (SADC) region – foreign direct investment (FDI), remittances, cross border bank flows (CBF), overseas development assistance (ODA) – and domestic savings and investment, employing the panel cointegration test and the dynamic ordinary least squares method (DOLS). The empirical results reveal that there is a strong positive relationship between domestic investment and domestic savings, FDI and remittances. These findings indicate that FDI remittances help in overcoming the limits on the domestic capital formation in the SADC region through permitting a rate of investment which is in excess of that which can be generated by domestic savings. Important policy implications on attracting foreign capital flows are discussed in the paper.     

SADC Trade with the European Union from a Preferential to a Reciprocal Modality

This study employs a global computable general equilibrium (CGE) model to examine the potential impacts of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) between the European Union (EU) and the Southern African Development Community (SADC). The simulation results suggest that a comprehensive EPA scenario is welfare‐improving for many SADC members. SADC preferential access to the EU markets is the key source for the prospective welfare and terms of trade gains. Overall, SADC production structures become more concentrated in export‐oriented sectors. These structural changes are accompanied by a high degree of adjustment and substantial fiscal losses.     

Trade integration in the Southern African development community: Prospects and problems 1

The adoption of a trade and development protocol by the member states of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) in August 1996 marks the end of an era of sectoral cooperation and the beginning of a process of trade integration among these countries. This article provides a preliminary analysis of the obstacles and opportunities which trade integration presents for the Southern African region in the context of the institutional and structural factors currently influencing trade patterns both within and outside the region. Critically, the article poses the question whether the provisions of the trade protocol provide an adequate framework for the region's agenda of trade integration and industrial development that is equitable, balanced and mutually beneficial. The analysis demonstrates that it does not, and hence the authors argue that measures that lie beyond the provisions of the trade protocol are a sine qua non for the success of trade integration.     

Landsat: A tool for development

A major problem for many decision-makers is the lack of reliable information on which to base decisions. This is particularly true for the extent and location of as well as changes in such natural resources as forests, rangeland, agricultural fields and water bodies. A very useful data source in providing such information is the Landsat orbiting satellites. These satellites have been repetitively collecting images of essentially the entire earth's surface since 1972. These images are readily available, inexpensive, useable and can provide exceptional resource information. Examples are presented on the use of this data for a variety of resource analyses.     

产业关联视角下农产品加工业集聚对农业现代化的影响分析

农产品加工业的集聚是推动农业现代化重要动力来源。基于2012 年—2020 年中国各省份的面板数据,利用空间杜宾模型检验农产品加工业集聚对农业现代化水平的影响。研究表明：总体上,农产品加工业集聚对农业现代化具有显著的正向影响,但存在区域异质性;本地区农产品加工业集聚能显著带动邻近省份的农业现代化水平,具有正向空间溢出效应;并且,当农产品加工业与本地农业强产业关联时,农产品加工业集聚才能显著促进农业现代化水平提升。     

Climate change,urban settlements and quality of life: The case of the Southern African Development Community region

Climate change has become a major national, regional and international problem cutting across developed and developing countries alike. Within the developing world, the effects of climate change have been devastating; this has caused enormous human suffering. The Southern African Development Community (SADC), a regional economic block of 15 countries, has been badly ravaged by the vagaries of climate change. The urban areas in particular appear to have been very badly impacted as flooding, drought, pollution and deforestation have become endemic. The impacts of climate change have triggered human suffering of immense magnitude, especially in areas occupied by the marginalised. This article is based on desk research and, using qualitative analysis, examines the impact of climate change on SADC countries, considers initiatives that the regional block has in place in efforts to mitigate the human suffering experienced as a consequence of the negative impact of climate change and, finally, considers a way forward.     

退耕还林政策效果分析——基于内蒙古赤峰市的调查

文章以内蒙古赤峰市为例，以来自部分农户的调查数据和统计年鉴等资料为基础，采用实证分析方法，对该地区退耕还林政策效果进行分析。结果表明，该政策对改善生态环境、调整农业产业结构、提高粮食单产、增加农民收入等产生了积极影响，但也存在林权纠纷、配套政策不完善、剩余劳动力增加、后续产业发展滞后等一些问题。据此，文章最后相应提出一些完善该政策的建议。     

Access to agricultural extension,credit and markets among small‐scale farmers in southern Zambia

This article used survey data to determine the extent to which small‐scale farm households in the Choma district of Zambia's southern province have access to agricultural extension services, credit and markets. The findings show that the majority of the sample households had access to extension and credit services. They also showed that the resource base or wealth of the households — as manifested by farm size, livestock ownership and human capital or management capacity (the household head's training in agriculture) — is a significant factor when accounting for differential access to extension and credit. On the other hand, study findings suggest that farm households are facing problems with marketing their produce under the liberalised agricultural marketing system. Based on these findings, the article discusses recommendations for providing solutions to some of the problems affecting small‐scale farmers in accessing production services.     

The state of Geographical Information Systems (GIS) training and research in South African universities

Geographical Information Systems or GIS has become one of the more prominent research and training tools in South African university departments in the 1990s. GIS developed in the 1970s in North America in response to the expanding capacity of computer systems and the need to integrate spatial and attribute data (Maguire et al, 1991). It was only in the mid‐1980s that the first systems were set up in South Africa, primarily at research institutions such as the Department of Water Affairs and the Institute for Natural Resources in Pietermaritzburg. Since then the use of the technology has grown exponentially and most of the country's major municipalities (Szecsei, 1990; Van Rensburg, 1992), government departments, town and regional planners (Zietsman, 1992; Venter, 1993), engineering concerns (Poolman, 1990) and universities have become regular users. At universities GIS is used more as a research tool than as a defined analytical procedure. This article reviews the development of GIS and its use in South African universities. It also discusses the advantages and impediments to the use of the technology and its development.