African farmers reap little benefit from crude oil price drop

From the coffee plantations of Uganda to the maize fields of Zambia, the collapse in world oil prices has so far brought few benefits for African farmers, with stubbornly high pump prices and voracious middle-men maintaining a squeeze on margins.

Only in South Africa, the continent’s most sophisticated economy and one of its top agricultural producers, have fuel prices — tightly regulated by the government — come down enough to make a difference.