Contesting Africa’s New Green Revolution

Biotechnology and Philanthrocapitalist Development in Ghana

Inbunden, Engelska, 2021

Av Jacqueline A. Ignatova, USA) Ignatova, Jacqueline A. (Appalachian State University

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Genetically modified crops have become a key element of development strategies across the Global South, despite remaining deeply controversial. Proponents hail them as an example of ‘pro-poor’ innovation, while critics regard them as a threat to food sovereignty and the environment. The promotion of biotechnology is an integral part of ‘new Green Revolution for Africa’ interventions and is also intimately linked to the rise of ‘philanthrocapitalism,’ which advances business solutions to address the problem of poverty. Through interviews with farmers, policymakers and agricultural scientists, Jacqueline Ignatova shows how efforts to transform the seed sector in northern Ghana – one of the key laboratories of this ‘new Green Revolution’ – may serve to exacerbate the inequality it was notionally intended to address. But she also argues that its effects in Ghana have been far more complex than either side of the debate has acknowledged, with local farmers proving adept at blending traditional and modern agricultural methods that subvert the interests of global agribusiness.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2021-06-17
Mått156 x 234 x 20 mm
Vikt476 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SeriePolitics and Development in Contemporary Africa
Antal sidor216
FörlagBloomsbury Publishing PLC
ISBN9781786996558

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Acknowledgments List of abbreviations PrefaceIntroductionChapter 1: Green Revolution discourse, structural adjustment, and the “enabling environment” for agribusinessChapter 2: Philanthrocapitalism and the politics of public-private partnershipsChapter 3: Biocapital, “pro-poor” biotechnology, and legislative changes in the seed sectorChapter 4: Technological savior or terminator gene? Biotechnology, food security, and the political economy of hypeChapter 5: Experts, entrepreneurs, and the “last mile user”Interlude: On “mixing”Chapter 6: Neocolonial anxietiesConclusion

Ignatova’s important book illuminates profound problems with public-private partnerships that skirt democratic accountability and empower wealthy interests at the expense of local communities. But it’s not a despairing account: she centres Ghanaian activists and policy-makers who are pioneering a new type of philanthropy, one emphasizing interdependency and social justice over anti-democratic efforts to privatize seed commons. A revelatory and insightful study.