Rethinking African Agriculture - How Non-Agrarian Factors Shape Peasant Livelihoods

List of contents

1. Peasant Agriculture in Africa: Science meets History 2. Missing out on the Agrarian Revolution: African Peasantry in Historical Perspective 3. Economy of Affection in Africa: The Informal Basis of Development 4. Farming Practices among African Hunter-Gatherers: Diversifying without Loss of the Past 5. Shifting Cultivators as Generalist Managers: The Threat of ‘Saving the Rain Forest’ 6. Unique Features of African Agro-pastoralism: Adapting Life and Sharing Wealth in Fluid Environment 7. Food Sharing among Commercial Rice Growers: Persistence of the Subsistence Ethic in Kenya 8. Longstanding Imprints of Natural Society: Towards a New Science of Agriculture in Africa 9. Making Innovations Socially Inclusive: Lessons from the Bemba in Zambia 10. General Conclusions: Implications for Research and Policy

About the author

Goran Hyden is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the Department of Political Science, University of Florida, USA.
Kazuhiko Sugimura is a Professor at the Center of Arts and Sciences at Fukui Prefectural University, Japan.
Tadasu Tsuruta is a Professor in rhe Faculty of Agriculture at Kindai University, Japan.

Summary

Rethinking African Agriculture argues that rural communities in Africa are still shaped by non-agrarian factors both in livelihood strategy and social formation.
This volume renews and deepens the research on the African peasantry by offering a fresh perspective drawn from the hitherto largely unknown Japanese research on the subject. The ethnographic fieldwork focuses not only on the micro environment of the producers but also the broader historical context in which they live and work. The contributors argue that, in comparison with other regions of the world, Africa has never passed through an agrarian revolution that would effectively change the mode of production from within. Modernization efforts from the outside have fallen far short of the ambition to transform agriculture in Africa. Rural Africa is still largely a natural society characterized by "non-agrarian" features as evident in people’s livelihood, social organization, and farming systems.
This book will be of interest to social scientists and anthropologists focusing on African development, agriculture and agrarian societies,

Product details

• Authors: Goran (University of Florida Usa) Sugimura Hyden
• Assisted by: Goran Hyden (Editor), Goran (University of Florida USA) Hyden (Editor), Kazuhiko Sugimura (Editor), Kazuhiko (Fukui Prefectural University Japan) Sugimura (Editor), Tadasu Tsuruta (Editor), Tadasu (Kindai University Japan) Tsuruta (Editor), Tsuruta Tadasu (Editor)
• Publisher: Routledge Academic
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 31.07.2022
• EAN: 9780367513528
• ISBN: 978-0-367-51352-8
• No. of pages: 200
• Series: Routledge Contemporary Africa
• Subjects: Natural sciences, medicine, IT, technology > Natural sciences (general); BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / General, Anthropology, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / General, BUSINESS & ECONOMICS / Development / Economic Development, SOCIAL SCIENCE / Developing & Emerging Countries, Developing Countries, Development Studies, Development economics & emerging economies, Development economics and emerging economies, Global South / Developing countries