ABSTRACT Mechanisation has made a comeback to agricultural policy in Africa, encouraging scholars... more ABSTRACT Mechanisation has made a comeback to agricultural policy in Africa, encouraging scholars to revisit seminal literature on induced innovation. Recent studies emphasise the role for markets in addressing Africa’s mechanisation gaps and warn about past government failures to be avoided. The trust in the ability of markets to offer optimal solutions is debatable. Markets are shaped, as states are, by the interests of their most powerful players. A history-informed analysis of mechanisation and agrarian change in Africa sheds light onto how states and markets are co-constituted. The much-hyped rise in demand of tractors by medium-scale farmers can be linked back to earlier government intervention. And today’s public-private partnerships for mechanisation services illustrate how private interests shape public policy. Top-down tractor programmes continue to largely bypass smallholder farmers, though some are able to benefit. Though tractors are only one element of a complex story of agrarian change in Africa, they illustrate the enduring process of commodification of land, farming and agrarian relations that benefits the few and subjugates the many.
Abstract (English) The study that formed the basis of this report was coordinated by IIED (under ... more Abstract (English) The study that formed the basis of this report was coordinated by IIED (under the Forestry and Land Use Programme) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Forestry, Ghana. The report was financed by the UK Department for International ...
During the 1990s, perceptions of an impending global environmental crisis favored the mobilizatio... more During the 1990s, perceptions of an impending global environmental crisis favored the mobilization of communities around authoritarian community structures that impose controls over natural resources. In Ghana, this has led to mismanagement of forested areas. Although the management of forest reserves ostensibly aims to prevent deforestation by humans, forest management policies have been influenced by desires to maximize timber production. Farmland has been co-opted for this purpose, plundering the biocultural diversity of the fields.
Problems of practices and discourses of forestry-related environmental management is discussed wi... more Problems of practices and discourses of forestry-related environmental management is discussed within the context of socially differentiated regional economies in Ghana's forest zones. Land tenure and fallow stewardship in the dry forest zone; and ...
7.95SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6211.77(ODI-AAU-OP--10) / BLD... more 7.95SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6211.77(ODI-AAU-OP--10) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
ABSTRACT This article examines the recent uptake of tractor ploughing services in northern Ghana.... more ABSTRACT This article examines the recent uptake of tractor ploughing services in northern Ghana. It examines the historical continuities in mechanisation and the emergence of a class of medium-scale commercial farmers. In the light of this, it questions the thesis that the recent uptake of mechanisation and emergence of medium-scale farmers reflects the successes of market liberalisation. It is critical of neoclassical theories of agricultural transformation rooted in theories of induced innovation and argues for a political economy approach that links agricultural transformation to processes of social differentiation and the historical role of the state in promoting agricultural commercialisation.
ABSTRACT Mechanisation has made a comeback to agricultural policy in Africa, encouraging scholars... more ABSTRACT Mechanisation has made a comeback to agricultural policy in Africa, encouraging scholars to revisit seminal literature on induced innovation. Recent studies emphasise the role for markets in addressing Africa’s mechanisation gaps and warn about past government failures to be avoided. The trust in the ability of markets to offer optimal solutions is debatable. Markets are shaped, as states are, by the interests of their most powerful players. A history-informed analysis of mechanisation and agrarian change in Africa sheds light onto how states and markets are co-constituted. The much-hyped rise in demand of tractors by medium-scale farmers can be linked back to earlier government intervention. And today’s public-private partnerships for mechanisation services illustrate how private interests shape public policy. Top-down tractor programmes continue to largely bypass smallholder farmers, though some are able to benefit. Though tractors are only one element of a complex story of agrarian change in Africa, they illustrate the enduring process of commodification of land, farming and agrarian relations that benefits the few and subjugates the many.
Abstract (English) The study that formed the basis of this report was coordinated by IIED (under ... more Abstract (English) The study that formed the basis of this report was coordinated by IIED (under the Forestry and Land Use Programme) in collaboration with the Ministry of Lands and Forestry, Ghana. The report was financed by the UK Department for International ...
During the 1990s, perceptions of an impending global environmental crisis favored the mobilizatio... more During the 1990s, perceptions of an impending global environmental crisis favored the mobilization of communities around authoritarian community structures that impose controls over natural resources. In Ghana, this has led to mismanagement of forested areas. Although the management of forest reserves ostensibly aims to prevent deforestation by humans, forest management policies have been influenced by desires to maximize timber production. Farmland has been co-opted for this purpose, plundering the biocultural diversity of the fields.
Problems of practices and discourses of forestry-related environmental management is discussed wi... more Problems of practices and discourses of forestry-related environmental management is discussed within the context of socially differentiated regional economies in Ghana's forest zones. Land tenure and fallow stewardship in the dry forest zone; and ...
7.95SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6211.77(ODI-AAU-OP--10) / BLD... more 7.95SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:6211.77(ODI-AAU-OP--10) / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo
ABSTRACT This article examines the recent uptake of tractor ploughing services in northern Ghana.... more ABSTRACT This article examines the recent uptake of tractor ploughing services in northern Ghana. It examines the historical continuities in mechanisation and the emergence of a class of medium-scale commercial farmers. In the light of this, it questions the thesis that the recent uptake of mechanisation and emergence of medium-scale farmers reflects the successes of market liberalisation. It is critical of neoclassical theories of agricultural transformation rooted in theories of induced innovation and argues for a political economy approach that links agricultural transformation to processes of social differentiation and the historical role of the state in promoting agricultural commercialisation.
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