3. The history and development of agriculture in the Global South Flashcards
African economic development and colonial legacies
- Legacies of colonialism have affected economic development
- Agency of African states: in British West Africa, there was a coincidence of colonial government and African farmers to enlarge and exploit land-extensive agriculture
Austin (2010)
Agricultural modernisation and SAPs in Sub-Saharan Africa.
An overview of SAPs in Sub Saharan Africa.
* Problematises the ‘crisis’ narrative pushed by imperialist World Bank to implement SAPs
* Outlines the features of the modernisation framework occurring through violent incorporation, bypassing farming and locking in agribusiness
* Modernisation fails because of technical failures (one-size-fits-all technological packages) and the unwillingness of smallholders to adopt new techniques (enculturation)
Bernstein (1990)
Philanthro-capitalism, the New Green Deal and improvement.
Philanthropy, racial capitalism and the ideology of ‘innovation’ in the NGR
* ‘Innovation’ discourse pushed by Gates etc is a recalibration of earlier colonial ‘improvement’ discourse
* This produces racialised and colonial subjects that remain key to development of capitalism
* Shift towards progress and freedom veneer
* Continued greater value given to Northern forms of scientific expertise
Canfield (2023)
Political economy of food.
The first papers outlining food regime theory.
Friedmann (1987, 1993)
A food regime genealogy.
- A theory that explains the strategic role of agriculture in relation to shifting geopolitical configurations
- 1st regime, 1870-1930s
- 2nd regime, 1950s-70s
- Debate over 3rd regime
- Used to understand structured moments in history of capitalist food relations and history of capitalism
Critiqued for overreliance on structural and static periodisation of history to the exclusion of agency and micro-level complexities.
McMichael (2009)
The NGR in Africa
The New Green Revolution in Africa.
* Defines political ecology as ‘the political economy of human-envt interactions’
* Analyses the first GR in Africa as entangled with contemporary politics rather than merely humanitarian
* Malthusian population growth crisis
* Then the NGR took off after 2008 crisis
* Similar focus on production without thinking about access
* Hunger consistently framed as a problem to be solved with more production
Moseley (2017)
Linked to Clapp & Moseley (2020)
Concentration and crises
Deep roots of vulnerability in the global industrial food system.
* Tracking the food regimes, we can see how patterns of concentration has led to an industrial food system vulnerable to volatility since before the first food regime
Farm level: dependence on a few crops and reliance on fossil fuels
* During colonisation, production focused on monoculture due to technology, soil knowledge, chemical pesticides, seed improvements
* Technologies reinforce one another leading to lock-in
Country level: concentrated staple crop production
* Settler colonies concentrated grain production leading to cheap imports and dpendencies in developing countries
* GR did not increase yields and what was sold went back into importing food
Global level: highly financialised commodity markets
* Rise of markets and emergence of a small group of powerful grain trading firms
* ABCD and inputs industry
Growing ecological problems further cause shocks.
Global industrial food system has deep roots.
We need to unwind lock-ins.
Clapp (2023)
The difference that capitalism makes
We need to engage more closely with the concept of ‘capitalism’ as an analytical category.
An over-focus on capitalism leads to an indifference to relations that co-shape or resist capitalism, disregarding other theoretical approaches.
Capital has always operated alongside non-capitalist forms of relations e.g. smallholder agriculture being less impacted by COVID-19 (Clapp & Moseley, 2020)
Ouma (2017)
Oxfam, Tanzania and Ujamaa
Example of socialist modernity, which means we cannot over-focus on capitalism.
* Tanzania: held huge ideological attraction in the world of the liberal Left
* Socialist modernity of ‘ujamaa’ (unity), pursued with Oxfam’s aid from 1973-76
* A rural society with a mobile rural population e.g. pastoralists, cattle herders
* Common to move seasonally to follow rains and grasses
* Villagisation planned for permanent settlement and new intensive forms of modern agriculture
* Failed because villages were built far from fertile soils, households couldn’t watch crops
* Overall disruption of a carefully adapted socio-ecology
So, we need to be wary of a simplistic global level analysis and look at the national, as well as acknowleding the growing agency of states in post-colonial period.
Jennings (2002)
Current debates on smallholders
An overview of the relevance of ‘the agrarian question’ in an era of neoliberal globalisation.
* Outcomes vary widely due to historical/contextual differences in how rural economies are incorporated into global markets
* Some smallholders win, other smallholders lose (FPE contribution)
* The peasantry has not declined: it is changing e.g. increased semi-proletarianisation
* Transformation is ongoing and characterised by sometimes contradictory changes
Good to cite at the end of an essay that argues for the continued relevance of interrogating smallholder agriculture.
Akram-Lodhi & Kay (2010)
