King cotton under sovereignty: The private marketing chain for cotton in Western Tanzania, 1997/98
Gibbon, P / 1998

Examines the emergence of a private sector marketing chain for cotton in Tanzania in the period 1994/95-1997/98, based on field work conducted between June and September 1997. It embodies a description of the background to the current marketing system, cotton’s changing place in the Tanzanian macro-economy, the division of labour within the marketing chain, the relation between the cotton chain and intersecting chains, and earnings and profits of different types of participants. Alongside this discussion is one of the character of the social groups occupying different positions in the chain’s division of labour and the nature of the social relations between them. The paper concludes with a discussion of general issues of market development and regulation for agricultural commodities, on the basis of a comparison between the cotton chains in Tanzania and Tamil Nadu, India.