The agrarian question in the neoliberal era : primitive accumulation and the peasantry

Food security and asset possession of small producers in developing countries has been severely undermined over many years. The old primitive accumulation of capital – by seizing resources from colonies – was only temporarily halted by independence struggles. Today the advanced capitalist world, whose large scale agriculture cannot meet its own consumption needs, angles to control the superior productive capacity of developing countries for both food and agrofuels. Monopolistic control of food distribution, increased prices of foods and farm inputs, and transnational capital's concessioning of land for food and agrofuel production have created a new scramble for land. At the same time neoliberal reforms have increased unemployment, deepened debt, led to land and livestock losses, reduced per capita food production and decreased nutritional standards. The dominant response to this agrarian crisis has been to reinforce the incorporation of the peasantry into volatile world markets and to extend land alienation, increasing import dependence. This book shows how the peasantry's increasingly active resistance has the potential to undermine political stability in third world countries. Patnaik argues that generating livelihoods and genuine development for the majority demands the encouragement of labour-intensive petty production, a rethinking about which agricultural commodities are produced, the redistribution of the means of food production and increased social investment in rural development. Food sovereignty requires policies that defend the land rights of small producers. Voluntary co-operation will permit economies of scale, higher productivity and incomes, and allow the mass of the people to live their lives with dignity. If you're an African non-governmental organisation of limited funds, please email info@pambazukapress.org to arrange a complimentary copy of this ebook (Adobe PDF). Ebook orders within the United Kingdom include VAT. A compelling and critical destruction of both the English agricultural revolution and the theory of comparative advantage, upon which unequal trade has been justified for three centuries, this account argues that these ideas have been used to disguise the fact that the North—from the time of colonialism to the present day—has used the much greater agricultural productivity of the South to feed and improve the living standards of its own people while impoverishing the South. At the same time, the imposition of neoliberal “reforms” in the African continent has led to greater unemployment, spiraling debt, land and livestock losses, reduced per capita food production, and decreased nutrition. Arguing that political stability hangs in the balance, this book calls for labor-intensive small-scale production, new thinking about which agricultural commodities are produced, the redistribution of the means of food production, and increased investment in rural development. The combined effort of African and Indian scholarly work, this account demands policies that defend the land rights of small producers and allow people to live with dignity. Cover Contents About the authors Preface Part 1 The agrarian question in the neoliberal era 1 Introduction 2 Advanced country living standards and developing country lands 3 Was there an agricultural revolution in England? 4 The fallacy of Ricardo’s theory 5 The unacceptably high cost of free trade 6 The new primitive accumulation and the land question today 7 Concluding remarks Part 2 Primitive accumulation and the destruction of African peasantries 8 Introduction: a failed agrarian transition in Africa 9 Primitive accumulation by dispossession in colonial Africa 10 Primitive accumulation and expanded reproduction? 11 Recent land grabs and subordination of peasantries 12 Alternatives during the neoliberal crisis 13 Conclusion Index Back cover Capitalism manoeuvres to control agricultural production in developing countries where neoliberalism has already decreased food security. Unless the land rights of small producers are defended, their active resistance will undermine political stability