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Maize, food insecurity, and the field of performance in southern Zambia

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  • Nicholas Sitko

Abstract

This paper explores the interrelationship between maize farming, the discourse of modernity, and the performance of a modern farmer in southern Zambia. The post-colonial Zambian government discursively constructed maize as a vehicle for expanding economic modernization into rural Zambia and undoing the colonial government’s urban modernization bias. The pressures of neo-liberal reform have changed this discursive construction in ways that constitute maize as an obstacle to sustained food security in southern Zambia. Despite this discursive change, maize continues to occupy a central position in the farming systems of the region. I argue that the continued prevalence of maize in southern Zambia can be understood as a performance that allows farmers to maintain their identities as modern rural subjects. The paper concludes with the policy implications of the field of performance on two contemporary debates in Zambian food security: the use of GMO crops and the promotion of cassava as a drought tolerant alternative to maize. Copyright Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2008

Suggested Citation

  • Nicholas Sitko, 2008. "Maize, food insecurity, and the field of performance in southern Zambia," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 25(1), pages 3-11, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:spr:agrhuv:v:25:y:2008:i:1:p:3-11
    DOI: 10.1007/s10460-007-9075-z
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. Gabre-Madhin, Eleni Z. & Haggblade, Steven, 2003. "Successes in African agriculture," MSSD discussion papers 53, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    2. Freidberg, Susanne, 2004. "French Beans and Food Scares: Culture and Commerce in an Anxious Age," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780195169614.
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    Cited by:

    1. Sitko, Nicholas J. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Cunguara, Benedito & Muyanga, Milu & Mangisoni, Julius, 2017. "A comparative political economic analysis of maize sector policies in eastern and southern Africa," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 243-255.
    2. Lincoln Addison & Matthew Schnurr, 2016. "Introduction to symposium on labor, gender and new sources of agrarian change," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 33(4), pages 961-965, December.
    3. Jean McGuire & Lois Morton & Alicia Cast, 2013. "Reconstructing the good farmer identity: shifts in farmer identities and farm management practices to improve water quality," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(1), pages 57-69, March.
    4. Sulemana, Iddisah & James, Harvey S., 2014. "Farmer identity, ethical attitudes and environmental practices," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 49-61.
    5. Nicola Ansell & Elsbeth Robson & Flora Hajdu & Lorraine van Blerk & Lucy Chipeta, 2009. "The new variant famine hypothesis," Progress in Development Studies, , vol. 9(3), pages 187-207, July.
    6. Sitko, Nicholas J. & Chamberlin, Jordan & Hichaambwa, Munguzwe, 2015. "The Geography of Customary Land in Zambia: Is Development Strategy Engaging With The Facts?," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 211222, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    7. Sitko, Nicholas & Jayne, T.S., 2014. "Demystifying the Role of Grain Assemblers in the Rural Maize Markets of Eastern and Southern Africa," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 176628, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    8. Lee-Ann Sutherland, 2013. "Can organic farmers be ‘good farmers’? Adding the ‘taste of necessity’ to the conventionalization debate," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 30(3), pages 429-441, September.
    9. Sitko, Nicholas J. & Jayne, T.S., 2014. "Exploitative Briefcase Businessmen, Parasites, and Other Myths and Legends: Assembly Traders and the Performance of Maize Markets in Eastern and Southern Africa," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 56-67.

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