Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
2. evaluation of policies and other factors affecting maize production, distribution, and
consumption;
3. assessment of the scope for better food security and maize market competitiveness;
4. projections on the impact of the total removal of statutory restrictions on the maize
market, particularly examining the welfare effects to producers, consumers and
government and other issues relating to the enhancement of market access.
7.3 The country socio-economic context and the place of maize
The small nation of Swaziland is one of the oldest monarchies on the African continent.
Landlocked between Mozambique and South Africa, it has a total area of 17,364 km 2 out
of which water makes up 160 km 2 . The population which currently stands at 1,083,289 is
growing at an annual rate of 2.02% (Thompson, 2004). Though statistically classified as
a middle-income country due to a nominal per capita GDP of US$ 4,900, Swaziland is
a highly fragile economy with few employment opportunities and as much as 69% of the
population living below a nationally-defined poverty line of SZL 128.60 (US$ 21.43) per
month (Ministry of Finance, 2005).
The mainstay of the economy is agriculture which is dominated by small-scale arable farming
and raising of livestock such as goats, pigs, chicken, sheep, etc. The major crops grown under
rain-fed, low technology conditions are maize, cotton, vegetables and groundnuts. About
65,800 hectares of land is under maize production each year on land held under communal
tenure by majority of the farming population. Annual production of maize is about 94,618
tonnes.
7.3.1 Maize production
On average, about 65,800 hectares of land is under maize production each year, producing
on average 94,618 tonnes per year with a yield average of 1.5 tonnes per hectare. It is
estimated that about 90% of the maize farms in the Swazi Nation Land are smallholder
farms (Mkhabela et al. , 2005). Figure 7.1 shows the estimated area planted and production
and yield averages of maize in 2003/2004 across the six agro-ecological zones of Swaziland,
namely the Highveld, the Upper Middleveld, the Lower Middleveld, the Western Lowveld,
the Eastern Lowveld, and the Lubombo Plateau. The attributes of the agro-ecological zones
are described in Table 7.1.
The estimated area planted, production and yield averages of maize from 1997 to 2003 in
the four main agro-ecological zones of the countryare shown in Table 7.2. Estimates of the
maize production, consumption, imports, and self-sufficiency in Swaziland over a 15-year
period, from 1987 to 2002, are shown in Table 7.3. Thus, from the 1999/2000 farming
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