1. 8. Agrarian Reform and the Green Revolution
COMMENTS
Gareth Austin 9/11/2012

2. Preface: ‘Agrarian Populism’
Peasantries are here to stay (Chayanov in eC20 Russia: tendency to differentiation is only cyclical with family-labour farms)
Peasant are efficient (‘neo-classical populism’) and innovative (Richards)
Opponents of both forms of agrarian populism: Marxists (Lenin to Byres), Modernization tendency (science will solve problems)

3. Why Agriculture Matters for Development
Also for exports (pay for imports of capital goods, raw materials)
As source of capital, labour, raw materials

4. Land: When is it valuable enough to redistribute?
Or rather, where and since when?
Land abundance, land scarcity
Land abundance in much of SE Asia in 1900 and most of SS Africa as of 1900
Population growth and export agriculture hugely reduced this in C20, as did settler and plantation colonialism in the case, especially, of Africa
Yet land still not scarce in much of Congo, Sudan etc
Inverse relationship only found where land scarce?
e.g. unusual in Africa, but found in central Kenya, in densely-populated small farming areas

5. On Land Redistribution (1)
Crucial distinction between land titling and land redistribution
Can be combined, as in postwar reforms in E Asia
But not necessarily: land titling traditionally advocated in cause of higher productivity not greater equality
Distinction also between conservative (Kenya: the colonial land reforms of ) and redistributive land redistribution (Eastern Asia after 1945)

6. On Land Reform (2)
Inverse relationship: when and where it existed is an empirical issue (certainly has existed, often because small and large farmers face different sets of prices for labour, land and capital)
Where land distribution extremely unequal and productivity low, a more equal distribution might reduce marketed output, because middle peasants market a smaller % of their crop than the rich OR poor
E.g. India 1980, according to Balasabramanyam

7. Green Revolution debate (1)
Shift in source of higher TFP: from farmers’ learning from experience to scientific experiments
Recently, GR has moved from ‘traditional’ HYVs to genetic engineering (plant breeding the precusor of the latter)
Debate focussed on alleged effect of increasing inequality: turned out to be transitional, in India & Bangladesh

8. Green Revolution (2)
Gender impact varied: e.g. reported withdrawal of wives from field labour force in parts of Punjab
Are the environmental and health costs also transitional?? Perhaps yes on the latter, perhaps no on the former (as many of you have argued)
Loss of species variety especially worrying

9. Politics of Environment in the ‘West’ and the ‘South’
Plus side of DDT was massive success against malaria, e.g. Sri Lanka l1940s
Banned by international organizations in response to pressure from US (R. Wade)
Western public opinion decisively influenced by R. Carson, Silent Spring

10. Green Revolution in Africa?
Historical contexts (often ignored):
(a) Intensification (higher inputs/acre) not new in SSA
(b) Africans have been adopting new crops & crop varieties for centuries: most crops grown in Africa today were originally exotic
Constraints on intensification (why it remained exceptional, rather than a trend, until recently land became scarce recently)
Partly because of environmental constraints (thin soils)

11. HYVs in Africa (1)
Crops: the right ones? Context of long history of African selective adoptions of exotic crops & crop varieties, including maize
Case of rice: West African varieties taken by slaves to Carolinas, American & Asian varieties imported since
Yes, HYVs input-intensive: water & petroleum products
Water constraints a key reason why same rice farmer in Sierra Leone may grow rice in 7 different ways

12. HYVs in Africa (2)
At best, a technology & capital fix that can break through constraints of thin soils & disease constraints (animal and plant disease)
Gates Foundation, FAO etc focus on exactly this kind of research
Paul Richards’s reservations:
cp his Indigenous Agricultural Revolution (1986)
and his & colleagues’ more recent work on new varieties of Asian-African hybrid rice crops in western Africa

13. CONCLUSON
Many thanks for coming on a Friday, and for a fascinating presentation & discussion!