IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/ctwqxx/v34y2013i4p671-690.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Value-chain Agriculture and Debt Relations: contradictory outcomes

Author

Listed:
  • Philip Mcmichael

Abstract

In the context of the world food crisis ‘value-chain agriculture’ is emerging as a new frontier of publicly subsidised corporate investment, incorporating smallholding farmers into commercial relations to redress apparent food shortages. This paper conceptualises value-chains as technologies of economic and ecological power, using cross-regional case studies to explore the impact of debt relations in extant value-chain relations. While the value-chain project envisioned by the development industry in partnership with the private sector is geared to ‘feeding the world’ the likely outcome is (differentiating) smallholders serving corporate markets at the expense of local food security. I argue that developmentalists seek to resolve the crisis through a ‘spatio-temporal fix’, enclosing smallholders in value-chain technologies financed through debt relations that appropriate value from smallholder communities. At the same time some farmers are seeking to avoid the debt trap by developing strategies to decommodify farming practices to preserve and revitalise their farms as creators of ecological values, rather than simply converters of economic value.

Suggested Citation

  • Philip Mcmichael, 2013. "Value-chain Agriculture and Debt Relations: contradictory outcomes," Third World Quarterly, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 671-690.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:ctwqxx:v:34:y:2013:i:4:p:671-690
    DOI: 10.1080/01436597.2013.786290
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/01436597.2013.786290
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/01436597.2013.786290?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    Citations

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


    Cited by:

    1. Edo Andriesse & Puntita Tanwattana, 2018. "Coping with the End of the Commodities Boom: Rubber Smallholders in Southern Thailand Oscillating Between Near-poverty and Middle-class Status," Journal of Developing Societies, , vol. 34(1), pages 77-102, March.
    2. Cees Leeuwis & Birgit K. Boogaard & Kwesi Atta-Krah, 2021. "How food systems change (or not): governance implications for system transformation processes," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 13(4), pages 761-780, August.
    3. Helena Shilomboleni, 2020. "Political economy challenges for climate smart agriculture in Africa," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 37(4), pages 1195-1206, December.
    4. Ríos Núnez, Sandra & Benítez Jiménez, Diócles & Soria Re, Sandra, 2015. "Cadenas agroalimentarias territoriales. Tensiones y aprendizajes desde el sector lácteo de la Amazonía ecuatoriana," Revista Lecturas de Economía, Universidad de Antioquia, CIE, issue 84, pages 179-208, November.
    5. Giuliano Martiniello & Ricardo Azambuja, 2019. "Contracting Sugarcane Farming in Global Agricultural Value Chains in Eastern Africa: Debates, Dynamics, and Struggles," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 8(1-2), pages 208-231, April.
    6. Bélair, Joanny, 2021. "Farmland investments in Tanzania: The impact of protected domestic markets and patronage relations," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 139(C).
    7. Marion Werner & Jennifer Bair & Victor Ramiro Fernández, 2014. "Linking Up to Development? Global Value Chains and the Making of a Post-Washington Consensus," Development and Change, International Institute of Social Studies, vol. 45(6), pages 1219-1247, November.
    8. Sarah Rotz & Evan Fraser, 2015. "Resilience and the industrial food system: analyzing the impacts of agricultural industrialization on food system vulnerability," Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Springer;Association of Environmental Studies and Sciences, vol. 5(3), pages 459-473, September.
    9. Vibeke Bjornlund & Henning Bjornlund & André Rooyen, 2022. "Why food insecurity persists in sub-Saharan Africa: A review of existing evidence," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 14(4), pages 845-864, August.
    10. Schoneveld, George C., 2022. "Transforming food systems through inclusive agribusiness," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 158(C).
    11. Ismail Doga Karatepe & Christoph Scherrer, 2019. "Collective Action as a Prerequisite for Economic and Social Upgrading in Agricultural Production Networks," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 8(1-2), pages 115-135, April.
    12. Jakobsen, Jostein, 2021. "New food regime geographies: Scale, state, labor," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 145(C).
    13. Rezvani, L., 2020. "Plants and their peasants: a more-than-human approach to plant breeding and seed politics in Brittany, France," ISS Working Papers - General Series 124280, International Institute of Social Studies of Erasmus University Rotterdam (ISS), The Hague.
    14. Freedom Mazwi & Abel Chemura & George T. Mudimu & Walter Chambati, 2019. "Political Economy of Command Agriculture in Zimbabwe: A State-led Contract Farming Model," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 8(1-2), pages 232-257, April.
    15. Philip McMichael, 2021. "Shock and Awe in the UNFSS," Development, Palgrave Macmillan;Society for International Deveopment, vol. 64(3), pages 162-171, December.
    16. Diana Mincyte & Karin Dobernig, 2016. "Urban farming in the North American metropolis: Rethinking work and distance in alternative food networks," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 48(9), pages 1767-1786, September.
    17. Thomas Vetter & Marianne Nylandsted Larsen & Thilde Bech Bruun, 2019. "Supermarket-Led Development and the Neglect of Traditional Food Value Chains: Reflections on Indonesia’s Agri-Food System Transformation," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(2), pages 1-18, January.
    18. Mutiu A. Oyinlola & Abdulfatai A. Adedeji & Nafisat Olabisi, 2021. "Technology, energy use, and agricultural value addition nexus: an exploratory analysis from SSA countries," Economic Change and Restructuring, Springer, vol. 54(2), pages 457-490, May.
    19. Mario Del Roble Pensado-Leglise & Andrew Smolski, 2017. "An Eco-Egalitarian Solution to the Capitalist Consumer Paradox: Integrating Short Food Chains and Public Market Systems," Agriculture, MDPI, vol. 7(9), pages 1-15, September.
    20. María G. Lira & James P. Robson & Daniel J. Klooster, 2022. "Commons, global markets and small-scale family enterprises: the case of mezcal production in Oaxaca, Mexico," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 39(3), pages 937-952, 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:taf:ctwqxx:v:34:y:2013:i:4:p:671-690. 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: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/ctwq .

    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.