Contestations and Resistance in the Sugarcane Economy in Mumias, Kenya

Abstract

Esta publicação é financiada por fundos nacionais através do Camões -Instituto da Cooperação e da Língua Portuguesa, I.P.

Toward a Socially Oriented Agricultural Model for Africa’s Renaissance

“…It is not in doubt that the cane industry has benefited farmers financially to some extent. Yet, the results of this dependence and control is that agriculture serves the interests of stakeholders including farmers individually, but not environmentally sound and integrated agriculture that places control over land and development processes in the hands of farmers and develops their local economies (Narh, 2019).…”

“…These technologies and capital inputs, often developed inorganically, are expected to guide how much and what kind of yield can be produced from a given piece of land. Yet, the persistence of land degradation, loss of farmers’ ingenuity, and rising land fragmentation have produced concerns about the sustainability of the technical input-centred model of agriculture (Narh, Forthcoming). The premise that intensive agriculture based on the technical input-centred model can be sustainable to produce land efficiency and conservation falsely suggests that all stakeholders can pursue conservation and sustainability as core interests.…”

“…In the sugarcane industry in Chemelil, these risks of the technical input-centred approach are evident. Narh (forthcoming) found out that the outcomes of the technical input-centered approach to agriculture endangers resistance and counter strategies from farmers that eventually jeopardize the sustainability of agriculture and agrobusinesses.…”

“…This claim has been investigated in this paper. In the sugarcane intensification systems in Kenya, farmers bear most of the costs of the large capital inputs (Narh, 2019; Waswa et al, 2012). Farmers are most often in debt from huge expenditure on capital inputs and this has resulted rather to eroding the innovative capacities of farmers to practice integrated agriculture with their agency at the centre.…”