Sammanfattning

The South African Government has for the past two decades spent significant resources on introducing smallholders to Genetically Modified (GM) maize with the aim to make agriculture a way out of poverty. However smallholder farming continues to decline and poverty is on the rise in the country. The present paper aims to explain this failure of the government to support its smallholders by describing the intra-actions between maize, politics and technological development in South African history. Importantly maize is understood here as an agent in that its materialities are not only being impacted by, but are also having impact on the outcome of farming practices and wider political economies. The paper describes how maize, as a result of intra-action between maize biology and choices made by farmers, politicians and breeders during the colonial era and apartheid, developed in parallel as a commodity serving the settler farmers, and an anti-commodity, or escape crop, providing subsistence to marginalised smallholders. While South Africa today is a democracy that spends significant resources on improving smallholder livelihoods, recent technological development and market concentration have increased rather than decreased the gap between commodity- and anti-commodity maize. As a result new GM and hybrid maize varieties introduced to smallholders today are badly equipped to facilitate a crop led New Green Revolution.

Nyckelord

Political ecology; More than human; Green Revolution; Africa; Multispecies

Publicerad i

Geoforum
2022, Volym: 130, sidor: 96-104

SLU författare

• Fischer, Klara

  • Institutionen för stad och land, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Globala målen

SDG2 Avskaffa hunger, uppnå tryggad livsmedelsförsörjning och förbättrad nutrition samt främja ett hållbart jordbruk
SDG1 Fattigdom omfattar fler dimensioner än den ekonomiska. Fattigdom innebär bl.a. även brist på frihet, makt, inflytande, hälsa, utbildning och fysisk säkerhet.
SDG16 Främja fredliga och inkluderande samhällen för hållbar utveckling, tillhandahålla tillgång till rättvisa för alla samt bygga upp effektiva, och inkluderande institutioner med ansvarsutkrävande på alla nivåer


UKÄ forskningsämne

Jordbruksvetenskap


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.geoforum.2021.08.001

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/113598