Governmer:t. 's ability to purchase all the available feed surplus. In addition, seed and fertilizer were not available at the criti- 56 E/EC\/C~l. 9/5 cal r.lvmerJt in 1981, and ody 25 per cent of the tractor fleet of 280 \vas functiorJinq. The Gcverr;rnent has er..barked upor; a series of proqrammes to return aqriculturul prcducticn to the pre- independence level. Ir. Uqarxia, follu1inq the drastic decline in output cf the rna j cr export crcps, ac;ricul ture '-las qi ve r· hiqhest priority in the packaqe of reforms anr.ounced by the Gcverr:ment in June 1981. 91. In a larqe ~ajority of African develcpinq ccuntries, aqricul tural producti en has bee rJ hampered by the set ti r:o of offi­ cial prcducer prices at ur.remurerative levels. In some countries the producer prices of mcst aqricul tural e}:pcrts ha Vl: rerr.a i r.ed frozen or have barely ir.creaseC for a number of years, or have been revised only recently. In some others, the rise i r· producer prices has beer~ \'Jell belC\l the rate of inflation, aoo is there­ fore ur~ikely tc stir..ulate peasant productior, fer expert. F'arm­ lnq for food was larqely neqlecteo durino the cclor:ial period, and producer pricE~s fer foc.('l crops have beer raised £ar more slowly than these fer cash crops. In scme cases, unifcrr prices are prescribed fe-r all reoions without due reqard beir,q paid tc heavy tra nspcrt costs, althouqh sane ccur:tries are v:crkinq tc correct such ar.ornalies. Ir: Bots\·iana, for e>~amr-'le, a r..ajc.r policy initiative in 1981/82 v~as the financial restructurirq of the .bots ..... ·ana Aoricultural t·!arketinq Board. APe\: pricinq policy has been introduced wl1ich tal~es transpe;rt and distributicr, cc~ts intc accc,u nt in set ti r.q producer prices. This rtestructuri nq i~ expec­ ted to assist in creatinq incentives for increase(; aqricultural 