From Farmer Participation to Pro?poor Seed Markets: The Political Economy of Commercial Cereal Seed Networks in Ghana

The current agricultural policy discourse in Ghana emphasises ‘pro?poor market’ approaches to seeds and input delivery systems by creating public?private partnerships and an enabling environment for agri?business. This has resulted in a particular configuration of actors and interests that define the country's emerging Green Revolution agenda, of which certified seed is a critical component. This article draws on the results of a political economic analysis of Ghana's cereal seed system to examine how influential alliances of public and private actors have constructed a particular vision of the future of agriculture in the country which serves a narrow set of political interests and constrains local innovation and opportunity in the seed sector. It highlights how this universalising ‘consensus’ is acting to close down efforts to establish more pluralistic, participatory approaches in favour of a single, dominant, commercially oriented model of agricultural development

Tobacco, Contract Farming, and Agrarian Change in Zimbabwe

The growth of smallholder tobacco production since 2000 has been one of the big stories of Zimbabwe's post-land reform experience. Yet the implications for agrarian change, and the consequences for new relations between farmers, the state, and agribusiness capital have rarely been discussed. The paper reports on work carried out on the Mvurwi area of Mazowe district in Zimbabwe with a sample of 220 A1 (smallholder) farmers and 100 former farmworkers resident in compounds on the same farms. By going beyond a focus on operational and business dimensions of contract farming, the paper concludes with reflections on the implications for understanding agrarian relations and social differentiation in those areas of Zimbabwe where tobacco growing is now significant, with lessons more broadly on the political economy of contract farming, and the integration of agribusiness capital following land reform

Political economy of contract farming and smallholder outgrower schemes : a case study of the Ghanaian oil palm industry

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Reflections on Teaching Africa in South Africa:

This article draws on the author’s experience of teaching African Studies to undergraduate South African students in order to reflect on some of the key challenges facing teachers of African Studies, both in South Africa and beyond. In particular, it discusses challenges relating to teaching a field as contested as African Studies, looking at whether teaching African alternatives to mainstream African politics is helpful and at whether and how one can teach Africa in a way that encourages and develops critical thinking. The article also explores how the racial politics of the context in which one teaches African Studies inevitably affects the way in which students engage with the content of the course. While the article discusses these issues in relation to the South African higher education context in particular, implications for other contexts are also highlighted