IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/wly/idsxxx/v42y2011i4p1-23.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Politics of Seed in Africa's Green Revolution: Alternative Narratives and Competing Pathways

Author

Listed:
  • Ian Scoones
  • John Thompson

Abstract

As calls for a ‘Uniquely African Green Revolution’ gain momentum, a focus on seeds and seed systems is rising up the agricultural policy agenda. Much of the debate stresses the technological or market dimensions, with substantial investments being made in seed improvement and the development of both public and private sector delivery systems. But this misses out the political economy of policy processes behind this agenda: who wins, who loses, and whose interests are being served? Drawing on lessons from country case studies from Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe, as well as insights from a set of complementary studies of cross‐cutting themes, this article assesses the evolution of seed system research and development programmes and processes across the region. By examining how the contrasting politics and different configurations of interests affect the way cereal seed systems operate, it highlights opportunities for reshaping the terms of the debate and opening up alternative pathways to more sustainable and socially just seed systems.

Suggested Citation

  • Ian Scoones & John Thompson, 2011. "The Politics of Seed in Africa's Green Revolution: Alternative Narratives and Competing Pathways," IDS Bulletin, Blackwell Publishing, vol. 42(4), pages 1-23, July.
    • Handle: RePEc:wly:idsxxx:v:42:y:2011:i:4:p:1-23
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1111/idsb.2011.42.issue-4
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Radosavljevic, Sonja & Haider, L. Jamila & Lade, Steven J. & Schlüter, Maja, 2020. "Effective alleviation of rural poverty depends on the interplay between productivity, nutrients, water and soil quality," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 169(C).
    2. Fredrick Bagamba & Proscovia R. Ntakyo & Geoffrey Otim & David J. Spielman & Bjorn Van Campenhout, 2023. "Policy and performance in Uganda's seed sector: Opportunities and challenges," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 41(3), May.
    3. Luna, Jessie K. & Dowd-Uribe, Brian, 2020. "Knowledge politics and the Bt cotton success narrative in Burkina Faso," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 136(C).
    4. Spielman, David J. & Kennedy, Adam, 2016. "Towards better metrics and policymaking for seed system development: Insights from Asia's seed industry," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 147(C), pages 111-122.
    5. Ola Tveitereid Westengen & Kristine Skarbø & Teshome Hunduma Mulesa & Trygve Berg, 2018. "Access to genes: linkages between genebanks and farmers’ seed systems," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 10(1), pages 9-25, February.
    6. Mengyi Zhang & Peter Dannenberg, 2022. "Opportunities and Challenges of Indigenous Food Plant Farmers in Integrating into Agri-Food Value Chains in Cape Town," Land, MDPI, vol. 11(12), pages 1-17, December.
    7. Kok, Kristiaan P.W. & Klerkx, Laurens, 2023. "Addressing the politics of mission-oriented agricultural innovation systems," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    8. Admos Chimhowu, 2013. "Aid for Agriculture and Rural Development: a Changing Landscape with New Players and Challenges," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2013-014, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    9. J.P.B. Lillesø & C. Harwood & Abayneh Derero & L. Graudal & J. M. Roshetko & R. Kindt & S. Moestrup & W. O. Omondi & N. Holtne & A. Mbora & P. van Breugel & I. K. Dawson & R. Jamnadass & H. Egelyng, 2018. "Why institutional environments for agroforestry seed systems matter," Development Policy Review, Overseas Development Institute, vol. 36(S1), pages 89-112, March.
    10. L. Jamila Haider & Wiebren J. Boonstra & Anzurat Akobirshoeva & Maja Schlüter, 2020. "Effects of development interventions on biocultural diversity: a case study from the Pamir Mountains," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(3), pages 683-697, September.
    11. Jessie K. Luna, 2020. "‘Pesticides are our children now’: cultural change and the technological treadmill in the Burkina Faso cotton sector," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(2), pages 449-462, June.
    12. Olaf Erenstein & Moti Jaleta & Kai Sonder & Khondoker Mottaleb & B.M. Prasanna, 2022. "Global maize production, consumption and trade: trends and R&D implications," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(5), pages 1295-1319, October.
    13. Jonathan Harwood, 2018. "Another Green Revolution? On the Perils of ‘Extracting Lessons’ from History," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 61(1), pages 43-53, December.
    14. Fredrick Ajwang & Saurabh Arora & Joanes Atela & Joel Onyango & Mohammad Kyari, 2023. "Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders," Journal of International Development, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 35(1), pages 3-20, January.
    15. Conny J. M. Almekinders & Steve Walsh & Kim S. Jacobsen & Jorge L. Andrade-Piedra & Margaret A. McEwan & Stef Haan & Lava Kumar & Charles Staver, 2019. "Why interventions in the seed systems of roots, tubers and bananas crops do not reach their full potential," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 11(1), pages 23-42, February.
    16. Fischer, Klara, 2016. "Why new crop technology is not scale-neutral—A critique of the expectations for a crop-based African Green Revolution," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 45(6), pages 1185-1194.
    17. Porcuna-Ferrer, Anna & Labeyrie, Vanesse & Alvarez-Fernandez, Santiago & Calvet-Mir, Laura & Faye, Ndèye Fatou & Ouadah, Sarah & Reyes-García, Victoria, 2023. "Crop biocultural traits shape seed networks: Implications for social-ecological resilience in south eastern Senegal," Agricultural Systems, Elsevier, vol. 211(C).
    18. Katherine A. Snyder & Emmanuel Sulle & Deodatus A. Massay & Anselmi Petro & Paschal Qamara & Dan Brockington, 2020. "“Modern” farming and the transformation of livelihoods in rural Tanzania," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(1), pages 33-46, March.
    19. Erenstein, Olaf & Kassie, Girma Tesfahun, 2018. "Seeding eastern Africa’s maize revolution in the post-structural adjustment era: a review and comparative analysis of the formal maize seed sector," International Food and Agribusiness Management Review, International Food and Agribusiness Management Association, vol. 21(1).
    20. Joeva Sean Rock, 2023. "“No one is talking about food”: making agriculture a “business” in Ghana," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 40(3), pages 1259-1272, September.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:wly:idsxxx:v:42:y:2011:i:4:p:1-23. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Wiley Content Delivery (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/journal.asp?ref=0265-5012 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.