Towards a Country and Crop Typology

Abstract

The impact of price policies and other measures on the five objectives will vary according to the country and the crop. The distribution of land and tenurial arrangements clearly make a difference to the impact of incentives. Equally clearly, whether crops can be grown additionally to existing ones, and how long they take to mature will make a difference to the impact of price incentives on growing these crops and achieving the objectives. It is possible to take two extreme positions, or an intermediate one. On the one hand, it could be argued that there are certain universal economic principles that apply at all times to all countries and all crops. On the other hand, it could be argued that each situation is unique and that nothing can be said in general. The position of this book is intermediate between these two extremes. It is possible to identify certain categories of crops and countries to which certain general principles apply, but in view of the complexity of the situations, great caution is necessary and only very rough and ready generalizations are possible. As far as crops are concerned, the following four categories are suggested.