Who gains from contract farming? Dependencies, power relations, and institutional change

Adams, Timothy; Gerber, Jean-David; Amacker, Michèle; Haller, Tobias (2018). Who gains from contract farming? Dependencies, power relations, and institutional change. The journal of peasant studies, 46(7), pp. 1435-1457. Taylor & Francis 10.1080/03066150.2018.1534100

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The paper highlights the mechanisms through which outgrower contract farming creates dependencies at the local level. Using sugarcane case study in Malawi, we show that dependencies are created through redefinition of use rights to customary land and through the redefinition of cash flows into outgrower communities. Through this two-dimensional process, corporations can secure access to land, exert control over local communities and transform the local social relations of reciprocity serving as the pillars of resistance. Our results indicate that contract farming changes rural agrarian relations, transforms local family institutions by carefully selecting a few household members with influence into the scheme and selectively dispossessing the poor community members.

Item Type:

Journal Article (Original Article)

Division/Institute:

08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Human Geography
06 Faculty of Humanities > Department of Art and Cultural Studies > Institute of Social Anthropology
09 Interdisciplinary Units > Interdisciplinary Centre for Gender Studies (ICFG)
08 Faculty of Science > Institute of Geography > Human Geography > Unit Political urbanism and sutainable spatial development
11 Centers of Competence > Center for Regional Economic Development (CRED)

UniBE Contributor:

Adams, Timothy, Gerber, Jean-David, Amacker, Michèle, Haller, Tobias

Subjects:

700 Arts > 710 Landscaping & area planning
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 330 Economics
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 320 Political science
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 340 Law
300 Social sciences, sociology & anthropology > 350 Public administration & military science
500 Science > 550 Earth sciences & geology
600 Technology > 630 Agriculture

ISSN:

0306-6150

Publisher:

Taylor & Francis

Funders:

[42] Schweizerischer Nationalfonds

Language:

English

Submitter:

Timothy Adams

Date Deposited:

22 Mar 2019 10:09

Last Modified:

05 Dec 2022 15:26

Publisher DOI:

10.1080/03066150.2018.1534100

Uncontrolled Keywords:

Contract-farming; sugarcane; dependency; dispossession; reciprocity; Agrarian change

BORIS DOI:

10.7892/boris.126964

URI:

https://boris.unibe.ch/id/eprint/126964

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