Who gains from contract farming? Dependencies, power relations, and institutional change
Publisher DOI
Abstract
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.
Date Issued
2018-11-30
Publication Type
Article
Subject(s)
Subjects
Contract-farming
•
sugarcane
•
dependency
•
dispossession
•
reciprocity
•
Agrarian change
Language(s)
en
Journal
The journal of peasant studies
Publisher
Taylor & Francis
ISSN
0306-6150
Access(Rights)
restricted