FAILING INNOVATION IN THE ZAIRIAN CASSAVA PRODUCTION SYSTEM: A COMPARATIVE HISTORICAL ANALYSIS

Since 1954 Zairian farmers have responded to the growing urban demand for cassava, the basic staple food, only by using more land and labour. Farmers are efficient, given their factor endowment, but the intensification of cassava production without innovation, caused by population pressure, leads to a farming system that is not sustainable and is slowly destroying itself: a degrading soil fertility, decreasing yields, a growing role for cassava because of its performance on poor soils. The labour constraint limits the physical output and income per farm and also the total cassava production. As a result the farm population can only feed itself and a non-agricultural population of the same size and has reached its boundaries. © 1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment Sustainable Development, Vol. 5, 36-42 (1997)