Analyzing Comparative Advantage of Agricultural Production and Trade Options in Southern Africa: Guidelines for a Unified Approach

2 3 Southern Africa was characterized by a heavily regulated agricultural market before the late 1980s but, since then, countries in the region have followed a strategy to remove restrictive measures from the agriculture sector. The deregulation process has occurred in the context of worldwide liberalization of agriculture. These changes mean that all the countries in the southern African region have to compete internationally in a more open agricultural market. In order to be competitive, southern African countries will have to use resources more efficiently by exploiting comparative advantages that may exist. This, among other things, entails that policy and decision-makers should be guided so as to implement policies and strategies that will enhance the competitiveness of agricultural producers. Various studies have shown that countries can improve their welfare by opening up their borders to freer trade. Furthermore, there is a worldwide move toward economic integration; the European Union being one prominent example. Southern Africa is no exception with the movement toward a Free Trade Area under the auspices of the Southern African Development Community (SADC). Not only is it foreseen that this movement will improve welfare in the whole region, but the region's competitiveness could also improve. Within the framework of economic integration in southern Africa, countries will only reap benefits by exploiting comparative advantages within the region. Foreword Changing Comparative Advantage in Southern Africa. This document develops the unified analytical framework and guidelines for the comparative economic analysis (CEA) studies of the seven countries. These studies do not only examine the existing comparative advantages, but also provide a means to evaluate the impact of different agricultural policies on comparative advantage. This proves to be an especially valuable tool to guide policymakers in the region. The focus of this particular document is on the operational aspects of implementing CEA analysis with special emphasis on the use of spatial analysis and geographic information systems (GIS) tools to conduct CEA analysis within an agro-ecological zone framework. This study is one in a series of studies on Africa's regional trade and comparative advantage, a joint activity of USAID Africa Bureau's Office of Sustainable Development, Agriculture, Natural Resources, and Rural Enterprise (ANRE) Division and the Regional Economic Development Services Office for Eastern and Southern Africa (REDSO/ESA). Dedicated to the memory of the late Professor Glenn Themba Magagula, formerly Deputy Vice Chancellor of the University of Swaziland, whose vision, foresight and leadership led to …