This article examines the changing governance structures in the South African agri-food sector. Changing legislative and market conditions forced agribusiness managers to rethink their governance structures to ensure the competitiveness of the agri-food sector. They had to adapt to the new structures in a relatively short time. Three case studies of different levels of coordination between firms are presented. The analysis indicates a move away from spot markets to managed coordination structures in response to the deregulation of South African agricultural policy.
Professionals in economics and agricultural economics have been paying increasing attention to institutional issues and have developed strong concepts and analytical tools to do so. The core message of this book is that this new focus is particularly relevant to the problems of agricultural development in Africa. As a result, there is a need to consolidate the lessons learned into a textbook to illustrate the relevance and application of these concepts and tools. The core purpose of the book is, therefore, to provide an accessible text on the economics of institutions relevant to agricultural development in the African context. However, the book cannot be regarded as exhaustive: it should be used by the discerning student as a text to be supplemented by the reading lists and the large volume of literature cited throughout the volume.BookPRIFPRI
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.