Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders

Fredrick Ajwang; Saurabh Arora; Joanes Atela; Joel Onyango; Mohammad Kyari

doi:10.1002/jid.3660

Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders

Fredrick Ajwang
, Saurabh Arora^*
, Joanes Atela^*
, Joel Onyango^*
, Mohammad Kyari^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Political Economy

University of Sussex
African Centre for Technology Studies
African Union Scientific Technical Research Commission

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

11 Citations (Scopus)

259 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

To address intensifying social and environmental challenges, development policy must learn from inclusions and exclusions of past discourses. We analyse Kenya's post-colonial agricultural policy discourse. Our analysis reveals a near-exclusive focus on the promotion of agricultural modernisation based on industrial farm inputs, a bureaucratic state and/or ‘the liberalised market’. It was with this thrust to modernise that smallholders (and other farmers) were generally seen as aligning. Smallholders' agency to diverge from modernisation was thus marginalised in the policy discourse. Overall then, the promotion of diverse agroecological and other farmer-led directions of development was largely missing from Kenya's policy landscape.

Original language	English
Journal	Journal Of International Development
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/jid.3660
Publication status	Published - 6 Jun 2022

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 2 Zero Hunger
SDG 8 Decent Work and Economic Growth
SDG 10 Reduced Inequalities
SDG 17 Partnerships for the Goals

Keywords

Kenya
Agricultural Policy
Modernisation
Agency
Smallholders

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Cite this

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title = "Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders",

abstract = "To address intensifying social and environmental challenges, development policy must learn from inclusions and exclusions of past discourses. We analyse Kenya's post-colonial agricultural policy discourse. Our analysis reveals a near-exclusive focus on the promotion of agricultural modernisation based on industrial farm inputs, a bureaucratic state and/or {\textquoteleft}the liberalised market{\textquoteright}. It was with this thrust to modernise that smallholders (and other farmers) were generally seen as aligning. Smallholders' agency to diverge from modernisation was thus marginalised in the policy discourse. Overall then, the promotion of diverse agroecological and other farmer-led directions of development was largely missing from Kenya's policy landscape.",

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N1 - Funding Information: The SRA and ASDS acknowledged smallholders' agency to learn and improve their production practices, but this was seen as enabled by the purchase of new technological inputs from agro‐industrial firms and by financial support from private credit providers (Alila & Atieno, 2006 ; Government of Kenya, 2004 , 2009 ). As part of the latter support, for example, a scheme called Kilimo Biashara Loan Scheme was launched in 2008 by the government collaborating with the private lender Equity Bank and the AGRA. The aim was to offer credit to maize farmers and enable them purchase modern inputs, ostensibly for improving farm productivity. Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Authors. Journal of International Development published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

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AB - To address intensifying social and environmental challenges, development policy must learn from inclusions and exclusions of past discourses. We analyse Kenya's post-colonial agricultural policy discourse. Our analysis reveals a near-exclusive focus on the promotion of agricultural modernisation based on industrial farm inputs, a bureaucratic state and/or ‘the liberalised market’. It was with this thrust to modernise that smallholders (and other farmers) were generally seen as aligning. Smallholders' agency to diverge from modernisation was thus marginalised in the policy discourse. Overall then, the promotion of diverse agroecological and other farmer-led directions of development was largely missing from Kenya's policy landscape.

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KW - Agency

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Enabling modernisation, marginalising alternatives? Kenya's agricultural policy and smallholders

Abstract

UN SDGs

Keywords

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