Seed struggles and food sovereignty in northern Malawi

Abstract

In this paper I use seeds in Malawi as both an analytical lens and an empirical focus of study to examine how food sovereignty is threatened or enhanced in a particular location and time. I argue that while food sovereignty was eroded for smallholders through neoliberal reforms to the agricultural system, community and kin practices help to maintain food sovereignty. The intersection of gender and class dynamics, combined with state policies, however, works to undermine food sovereignty for particular groups in northern Malawi. Historical processes of exclusion, dispossession and exploitation changed the division of labour and reduced time and land for diverse farming systems. State policies reduced knowledge and availability of preferred local varieties. While peasants, particularly women, have considerable knowledge of seed varieties, and seeds continue to be exchanged in agrarian communities, young women, tenant farmers, food insecure younger couples and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS)-affected families are particularly vulnerable to reduced food sovereignty, in part due to gender inequalities, unequal land distribution and social stigma. New efforts to strengthen food sovereignty need to build on community and kin relations, while addressing social inequalities. Understanding the struggles and relations linked to seeds helps us to understand ways in which food sovereignty is undermined or strengthened.

Keywords:

• Malawi
• food sovereignty
• maize
• seeds
• agrobiodiversity
• gender

This paper is based on extensive fieldwork done in collaboration with the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities project since 2000. The support and insights of Rodgers Msachi, Tinkani Gondwe, Lizzie Shumba, Laifolo Dakishoni, Esther Lupafya and other members of this project, along with the financial support from the International Development Research Centre (Canada), the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council, Canadian Foodgrains Bank and Presbyterian World Service and Development for our work are gratefully acknowledged. The paper builds on a book chapter originally in Food sovereignty: reconnecting food, nature and community, edited by Hannah Wittman, Annette Aurélie Desmarais and Nettie Wiebe, published by Fernwood Publishing, which grew out of a stimulating workshop held in 2008 on food sovereignty, organized by the editors. Their initiative and vision are warmly acknowledged. The survey conducted in 2010 was done in close collaboration with Sieglinde Snapp, whose insights and knowledge are much appreciated. I also thank Hannah Wittman, Raj Patel, Philip McMichael, Max Pfeffer, Rebecca Nelson, David Pelletier and the anonymous reviewers for their helpful feedback on earlier versions of this paper. Tony Weis' insights into agrarian systems have also been very helpful in my analysis. Jun Borras' encouragement to see this paper to completion is also gratefully acknowledged.

Notes

¹I carried out the research in collaboration with the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities project (SFHC), an interdisciplinary research project seeking ways to improve food security, soil fertility and child nutrition with resource-poor farmers. (SFHC 2013).

²As a cross-pollinating crop, it is harder to maintain maize characteristics across generations. An open-pollinated variety (OPV) of maize is a genetically heterogeneous population of plants that has been selected for particular traits and for general agronomic uniformity. OPVs can be recycled for several years before they need to be replaced. Local maize types, also called folk varieties or landraces, are a genetically diverse population of maize varieties, with variable traits (Brush 2004).To produce a hybrid maize variety, two or more selected genetic lines are bred together to produce a progeny population (called F1) that is often dramatically more productive than either parent. In order to maintain the varietal quality, farmers must obtain new hybrid maize seed annually. Reproduction of hybrid varieties is technically difficult for smallholder farmers, whereas open-pollinated and local varieties can easily be reproduced at the farm level.

³President Mutharika passed away in April 2012, and was replaced by President Joyce Banda. Given the short time that she has been in power, no conclusions were drawn in this paper with regards to her agricultural and seed policies.

⁴Note that this is the percentage of all maize seed varieties planted, not area planted. For the 199 respondents in 2010, a total of 343 maize varieties were planted, and 20 of those did not report either varietal type or seed source.

⁵All respondent names are changed to protect confidentiality. Unstructured Interview 14, 23 March 2003. Similar patterns observed for Unstructured Interviews #11 and 20.

⁶In-depth semi-structured interview with woman farmer, 4 March 2004.

⁷Focus group discussion with People Living with HIV/AIDS group, 6 June 2007.

⁸Monsanto Malawi's market manager explicitly indicated in an interview with the author that MH18 was not profitable enough and would be phased out, because it had been bred by the Ministry of Agriculture and thus Monsanto did not have patent rights on it. Later, the company cited Grey Leaf Spot as the official reason for phasing it out, but plant breeders indicated that it would be simple to breed an MH18 variety that is resistant to this disease (Bezner Kerr 2006).

⁹Sasakawa Africa Association is an international NGO, whose focus is the promotion of fertilizer, hybrid seeds and other inputs to improve grain productivity, as well as increasing market access for smallholders. They receive support from a Japanese foundation, the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, the Gates Foundation and USAID. As of 2007, they no longer operate in Malawi. Their current countries of operation are Uganda, Mali, Nigeria and Ethiopia. (Saskawa n.d.)

¹⁰As far as the author is aware, there are no field trials currently underway in Malawi of drought-tolerant crops, but the Government of Malawi released a National Biotechnology Policy in 2008, which permitted research on GM crops. Current field trials in Malawi for GM crops include herbicide-tolerant maize to control Striga (witchweed) (African Agricultural Techology Foundation n.d.). The five African countries where field trials for drought-tolerant maize are underway as of 2012 are: South Africa, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. See the African Agricultural Technology Foundation's website for the most recent report, under the Water Efficient Maize for Africa project.

Additional information

Rachel Bezner Kerr is Associate Professor in the Department of Development Sociology at Cornell University, Adjunct Professor at the University of Western Ontario and the Research Coordinator of the Soils, Food and Healthy Communities project, based in Ekwendeni, Malawi. Her research interests focus on farmer-led agroecological approaches to improving food security, critical examinations of neoliberal approaches to agriculture, and the historical, political, economic and gender dynamics that shape food security, health and nutrition, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa.