UN Integrated Regional Information Networks
15 October 2008
Swaziland's failure to take advantage of the opportunity to export unlimited quantities of beef to the lucrative European Union (EU) market is being attributed to poor animal husbandry, high livestock mortality rates, and cultural practices that deter farmers from selling their cattle.
[ See Article ]
Right down at the end of the article the real problem is revealed: the absence of property rights. All the earlier complaints about protein, rainfall, cultural obstacles and agricultural methods are just symptoms of poor practices that are forced on people because they have no security of tenure, let alone ownership. Property rights are the basis of economic growth and any attempts to work without them have only created huge state enterprises and cumbersome market distortions that are doomed to failure.