MACRO-ECONOMIC POLICIES AND THE SUPPLY OF HORTICULTURAL CROPS IN DEVELOPING ECONOMIES

The study examines the potential effects of macro-economic policies on the supply of horticultural crops, viz., fruits, vegetables, flowers, and mushrooms in developing economies.
It argues that the recent rising trend towards the implementation of IMF-World Bank structural adjustment programmes (SAP) by developing economies has created, in such economies, agriculture sectors characterised by growing integration with both domestic non-agriculture sectors and the international economy since commodity and capital market liberalization or deregulation associated with SAP continues to dissolve the insulators which hitherto protected agriculture from shocks external to it.
This trend, the study suggests, presents crucial implications particularly for the supply of horticultural crops, since these crops are highly perishable.
The paper presents a framework which demontrates how the highly perishable nature of horticultural commodities as well as the restrictive macro-economic policies and the market-oriented bias characteristic of SAP could precipitate decreased supply of such crops by developing economies.
The implications of the study for the promotion of increased production of horticultural crops in developing economies are made.

I International Symposium on Horticultural Economics in Developing Countries

K. Yerfi Fosu

https://doi.org/10.17660/ActaHortic.1991.270.38