Agriculture in Swaziland
The Swazi economy is strongly export oriented. In 1995, about 79% of GDP was generated by exports, with the farm sector responsible for more than 32%. However, even these figures understate the real value of agriculture in the economy.
Manufacturing, for instance, contributes about 34% of GDP, but in recent years, more than three quarters of industrial output has involved adding value to farm products.
The agricultural economy is characterized by dualism. Commercial arable estates generate more than 81% of the value of all agricultural output (and 8.6% of GDP). By contrast, traditional farming accounts for some 11% of the value of
agricultural output, not exceeding than 1.2% of GDP. The commercial sector consisting of large sugar estates on Title Deed Land (TDL) and some smallholder farmers on Swazi Nation Land (SNL) predominantly cultivates irrigated sugar, citrus and
pineapple while on the major part of Swazi Nation Land, the agriculture is overwhelmingly geared to rainfed subsistence farming with maize as the predominant crop. A major constraint for the development of the resource poor SNL farmers is the
non-availability of irrigation water which could enable them to increase their productivity. The only cash crop of any significance is cotton.
In summary, the modern TDL sector, with less than 40% of the cultivated land, accounts for most of the agricultural output - more than two thirds. SNL agriculture, with more than 60% of the cultivated land, contributes 22% of crop production.
Livestock makes up the remainder.
|
