The global food system, agro-industrialization and governance: alternative conceptions for sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

Global food security challenges give rise to contentious debates. Conventional approaches to agricultural development call for capital-intensive industrial-scale farming to increase global productivity. Sub-Saharan Africa is the main target for agro-industrial farmland investments. Critical scholars oppose these trends in the region, arguing that the large-scale farming model causes a devastating loss of land resources and harms rural livelihoods. Critical development scholars and critical globalization scholars generally intersect in their candid rejection of global capitalism and the commodification of agri-food resources. This paper adds to existing critiques by advancing a governance approach. In reviewing case study evidence from eight countries, it highlights the crucial role of governments, who ultimately wield sovereign authority to regulate the agricultural sector. This analysis represents a fusion of critical development studies and critical globalization studies. Rather than rejecting the global capitalist system, it sheds light on the need for effective regulation and identifies key actors and policy areas.

KEYWORDS:

• Rural development
• agro-industrialization
• investment
• governance
• Africa

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No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Steffi Hamann

Steffi Hamann is Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Development Studies at the University of Guelph. Her research centres around questions of socio-economic development and global inequalities. She investigates the political economy of agricultural commodity investments and their impacts on local livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining the University of Guelph, she worked as a practitioner for the German development agency GIZ. Dr Hamann has conducted extensive field work in Burkina Faso and Cameroon.