Control grabbing and value-chain agriculture: BRICS, MICs and Bolivia’s soy complex

ABSTRACT

This paper analyses Bolivia’s industrial value-chain agriculture and argues that a new phase of control grabbing is occurring via value-chain relations. New forms of capital from emerging economies are penetrating Bolivia’s countryside and drastically changing the forms and relations of production, property, and power. These processes are analysed by disaggregating the agro-industrial value chain and revealing where the value being produced is appropriated and how the terms of control are changing. The widespread use of genetically modified soybeans and industry’s appropriation of natural inputs have opened new spaces for capital to penetrate, circulate, and accumulate, particularly from Brazil, Argentina, and China. As the production process becomes increasingly commodified, smallholders are adversely incorporated into value-chain relations, threatening their ability to work their land now and in the future.

KEYWORDS:

• Value chains
• control grabbing
• industrial agriculture
• soy complex
• Bolivia

Acknowledgements

An earlier version of this paper was presented at the BRICS Initiative for Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS) International Conference held at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS), University of Western Cape, 20–23 April 2015. I would like to thank the participants at that conference, two anonymous reviewers, and the guest editors of this special issue for their very helpful comments and criticisms. Jun Borras, Max Spoor, Murat Arsel, and Christina Schiavoni also provided valuable feedback at a seminar held at the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) for which I am grateful. Any remaining errors are, of course, my own.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1. ‘Crops that have multiple uses (food, feed, fuel, industrial material) that can be easily and flexibly inter-changed’ (Borras et al., 2012, p. 851). See also TNI Flex Crop Working Paper Series.

2. Large-scale landed estates.

3. Based on the combined area of soybean cultivation in summer 2013 (1,180,000 ha). Author’s own calculation based on data from ANAPO (2013).

4. From 490,000 hectares in 2000 to 942,000 hectares in 2014 (ANAPO, 2014).

5. The ‘partida’ arrangement is a form of land leasing that was not practised before the soybean ‘boom’, but has now become common in the lowlands where land is relatively scarce. ‘Partida’ or ‘al partir’ means to share or split harvest or usufruct benefits among those working the land and those who hold tenure rights to the land (McKay & Colque, 2016).

6. Production costs range from US$420 to US$560 per hectare in Bolivia’s expansion and integrated zones (IBCE 2014).

7. Author’s elaboration based on data received from personnel at the Instituto Nacional de Innovación de Agropecuaria y Forestal (INIAF) in 2014.

8. Author’s elaboration based on data from SENASAG (2014).

9. Author’s own based on field notes 2014–2015.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada [752-2012-1258] and a BICAS Small Grant Award.

Notes on contributors

Ben M. McKay

Ben McKay is an Assistant Professor of Development and Sustainability at the University of Calgary in Canada. He received his PhD from the International Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, The Netherlands and is a research associate and part of the global secretariat of the BRICS Initiatives in Critical Agrarian Studies (BICAS). His work has been published in the Journal of Peasant Studies, Journal of Agrarian Change, World Development, Energy Policy, Third World Thematics: A TWQ Journal, among others. Email: [email protected]