7.
 The case is quite different in most dryland areas in developing

 countries. Except perhaps for the richest, producers are not organised

 nor politically powerful and have few if any links with researchers;

 the range of transformation processes occurs largely within the

 domestic domain using local technologies; wholesalers and retailers

 operate in fragmented and often non-competitive arenas in which the

 overall level of sales is depressed and quality carries no premium,

 and, consumers have weak purchasing power and few if any organized

 channels for expressing their preferences.


 If the inherent yield potential of many dryland areas is judged to be

 low, with scant chance that the value of the marketed uutput will ever

 pay for or induce the kind of infrastructural developments witnessed

 in irrigated environments, then, presumably, it will be necessary to

 preserve a continuing capacity to derive benefits frum the goods and

 services presently obtained from the biomass through transformation

within the local community and the household economy. The challenge

becomes that of raising capacity without displacing too many of the

benefits presently obtained from within the micro-economy rather than

in raising capacity by concentrating on only a few benefits (higher

yield) and externalising the provision of the rest. Varietal

characteristics must continue to an (unknown) extent to meet the

demands of domestic transformation processes, technologies and end

uses.


The following example describes just such a situation.

The local vegetables (fruits not included here for the sake of

simplicity) produced on one farm (February 1980) at Sambwa in Mpika