Land use and farming systems are important considerations in the present African crisis. Evidence of land use problems in four selected African coun- tries - Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique - and how these problems can be resolved are outlined. Policy options and recommendations avail- able to the above four countries are analysed. Professor Mascarenhas is at the University of Dar Es Salaam, PO Box 35102, Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania; Professor Odero- Ogwel is the Director of the Joint ECA/FAO Agriculture Division, UN Economic Com- mission for Africa, PO Box 3001, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. Y.F.0 Masakhalia is Senior Consultant to ECA/FAO and OAU, and a former Chief Economist and Perma- nent Secretary of the Ministry of Planning and Development in Kenya, and can be contacted at PO Box 44588, Nairobi, Kenya; and Dr Biswas is the Director of Biswas and Associates, at 76 Woodstock Close, Oxford OX2 8DD, UK. This paper is based on a report discussed at the 21st Session of the Economic Commission for Africa and the 12th Meet- ing of the Conference of Ministers, Yaounde. Cameroon, 17-21 April 1986. Land use policies and farming systems Kenya, Tanzania, Zambia and Mozambique zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONML Adolf0 Mascarenhas, L.A. Odero-Ogwel, Y.F.O. Masakhalia and Asit K. Biswas Despite the numerous national and international efforts in Africa to combat the deteriorating economic and social situation, the position since the late 1960s has been worsening. In 1985, midway through the Lagos Plan of Action, the situation is no better. The continent has moved from an earlier self-sufficiency in food and exports of agricultural products to increasing deficits. The resources available to the countries to invest in development are presently at a low point. The future outlook is very bleak unless trends are reversed. Without underestimating the devastating impact of repeated droughts and other environmental hazards, deep rooted structural problems in African development manifest themselves in the many symptoms, among which are: 1) 2) 3) A growing and serious food problem. The shortfall in food decline has accelerated from 7% in the late 1960s to 15% in the 1970s. Between 1975-80 cereal imports doubled to more than 24 million tons and the cereal import bill grew tenfold in the 1970s to nearly US $6 billion in 1981. An alarming decline in agricultural production. Of the 39 countries, 26 have had a per capita decline in production between 1969-79. For example, the annual per capita decline of the non-food agricultural products has been 7.2% for Mozambique, 14.6% for Guinea and 15.6% for Angola. Given that the economics of most African countries are heavily dependent on agriculture, this has meant serious foreign exchange problems. In several countries the cereal import bills alone were equivalent to 50% of the export earnings for agriculture. A major erosion of the national production base. Soil loss has turned many areas which were once productive into deserts; devastation of forests has meant that the once beneficial impact of water has brought the threat of floods and loss of nutrients; and despite substantial investments in dams their lives have been shortened due to heavy sedimentation in reservoirs. 288 0264-8377/86/04286-18$03.00 0 1986 Butterworth & Co (Publishers) Ltd