by Keiichiro Matsumura Abstract In peasant studies, many anthropologists have taken the view that the peasant economy has some salient cultural traits distinct from the rational choice of neoclassical economics. This view has been criticized by political economists as ignoring the process and mechanism of peasants’ economic behavior. This paper examines cases of food sharing in highland […]
by Joost Fontein Abstract Based on fieldwork carried out between June 2005 and July 2006, this paper questions common assertions which suggest that recent ‘fast track’ land reform in Zimbabwe did not fit with local understandings of land tenure. While fast track land reform was not officially planned as a form of ‘land restitution’, in […]
by Henk Mutsaers and Paul Kleene Abstract The views of forty veterans on sixty years of African agricultural development, published recently in book form, are analyzed against the background of René Dumont’s epochal publication “L’Afrique noire est mal partie.” Although some of Dumont’s opinions and recommendations are no longer valid, it is striking how many of […]
by Andrew Mushita and Carol Thompson Abstract In international fora, climate change discussions center on how farmers can “mitigate” and “adapt” to weather variability to increase food production. Instead, African smallholder food producers are employing ways to “resist” and “sustain,” for international policies in the name of climate change threaten their farming systems, biodiverse genetic wealth, […]