Liberisation of Agricultural markets

The liberalisation of agricultural marketing is part of the structural adjustment programme (SAP) introduced in Zimbabwe with the support of the Bretton Woods Institutions in 1991. Trade liberalisation in the agricultural sector has mainly involved reduction of the government's direct involvement in the production, distribution, and marketing of agricultural inputs and commodities; removal of price subsidies on farming subsectors; conversion from single channel of marketing of agricultural products; privatisation of agricultural marketing and transformation of some marketing boards into private entities where government has a limited shareholding, and liberalisation of import and export trade on some commodities. 

This study of liberalisation of agricultural markets was therefore carried out as a result of widespread concern about the generally weak response of smallholder and communal agriculture to SAP and market liberalisation.