Food and environmental policies in Africa

Contestations and Resistance in the Sugarcane Economy in Mumias, Kenya

“…One of the main sources of wealth and livelihood in Africa is commercial farming and related agricultural processing (Yumkella et al, 2011). Thus, supposedly declines in food production while food imports rise in Africa served the foundation impetus to direct intense policy on agricultural intensification and introduction of modern agricultural infrastructure in Africa (Biswas & Biswas, 1986). Sustainable agricultural intensification is defined in the literature mainly as a process to achieve food security through increased and focused harnessing of agricultural lands to increase their productivity while controlling negative outcomes on environmental resources and avoiding expansion of land for agriculture (Garnett & Godfray, 2012;Godfray et al, 2010).…”

“…In Reardon et al (1999) agricultural intensification is aimed at enhancing food production through adequate use of inorganic fertiliser and capital such as soil and water conservation technologies. The concern over food supply to meet growing demands, which is claimed to be a persistent problem in Africa (Biswas & Biswas, 1986) has firmly established the drive for agricultural intensification as a transformative paradigm for Africa. Indeed, observations around Africa are that agricultural intensification has facilitated the introduction of capital inputs, including extensive use of fertilisers by farmers.…”

“…A good weight of Africa's problems in various sectors, including transporting principles of efficiency and productivity in agriculture out of contexts of farming communities, have extracontinental origin, including the marauding rampage of foreign agribusinesses, firms, governments, and development agencies with deep interests in African resources and labour. To this end, the direct association of sustainable agricultural intensification as African solution to African problems (Biswas & Biswas, 1986) is unacceptable. The term "African solution to African problems" that is quoted in academia, media, policy and other platforms is often a disguise that craftily steers dominant economic and political interests towards a disruptive exploitation of natural resources in Africa (Bond, 2006;Campbell, 2011).…”