Download or read book Contesting Africas New Green Revolution written by Jacqueline Ignatova and published by Zed Books Ltd.. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘In this insightful critique of arguments for and against GMOs as a remedy for poverty, inequality and hunger in Africa, Ignatova illuminates the way the “new Green Revolution” serves as a vehicle for philanthrocapital – generating markets and wealth for global agribusiness in the name of “pro-poor” development.’ Sara Berry, Professor Emeritus, John Hopkins University, USA ‘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.’ Linsey McGoey, Professor of Sociology, University of Essex, UK ‘Like a combine through a field of genetically modified maize, Jacqueline Ignatova cuts through the rhetoric surrounding the ‘Green Revolution for Africa’ to reveal the underlying power, politics and inequities that shape agricultural development in contemporary Ghana. Full of rich empirics and analytical insights, this book is essential reading for those seeking a comprehensive understanding of how public-private partnerships and philanthropy-driven initiatives are reshaping smallholder agriculture across the African continent.’ Marcus Taylor, Associate Professor and Head of Department, Global Development Studies, Queen’s University, Canada

Download or read book Contesting Africa s New Green Revolution written by Jacqueline A. Ignatova and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Contesting Africa s New Green Revolution written by Jacqueline A. Ignatova and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-05-20 with total page 306 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

Download or read book Contesting Africa s New Green Revolution written by Jacqueline Ignatova and published by . This book was released on 2021 with total page 216 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "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."--

Download or read book Unmasking the New Green Revolution in Africa written by Elenita C. Daño and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 63 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Contesting the Iranian Revolution written by Pouya Alimagham and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-03-19 with total page 335 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the last forty years of Iranian and Middle-Eastern history through the prism of the Green Uprisings of 2009.

Download or read book The Future of Genetically Modified Crops written by Felicia Wu and published by Rand Corporation. This book was released on 2004-08-13 with total page 115 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The world is now on the cusp of a new agricultural revolution, the so-called Gene Revolution, in which genetically modified (GM) crops are tailored to address chronic agricultural problems in certain regions of the world. This monograph report investigates the circumstances and processes that can induce and sustain this new agricultural revolution. The authors compare the Green Revolution of the 20th century with the GM crop movement to assess the agricultural, technological, sociological, and political differences between the two movements.

Download or read book The New Harvest written by Calestous Juma and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2015 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: African agriculture is currently at a crossroads, at which persistent food shortages are compounded by threats from climate change. But, as this book argues, Africa can feed itself in a generation and can help contribute to global food security. To achieve this Africa has to define agriculture as a force in economic growth by advancing scientific and technological research, investing in infrastructure, fostering higher technical training, and creating regional markets.

Download or read book Africa s Shadow Rise written by Pádraig Carmody and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For years economists have spoken of 'Africa rising', and despite the global financial crisis, Africa continues to host some of the fastest growing economies in the world. Africa's Shadow Rise however argues that the continent's apparent economic 'rise' is essentially a mirage, driven by developments elsewhere - most particularly the expansion in China's economy. While many African countries have experienced high rates of growth, much of this growth may prove to be unsustainable, and has contributed to environmental destruction and worsening inequality across the continent. Similarly, new economic relationships have produced new forms of dependency, as African nations increasingly find themselves tied to the fortunes of China and other emerging powers. Drawing on in-depth fieldwork in southern Africa, Africa's Shadow Rise reveals how the shifting balance of global power is transforming Africa's economy and politics, and what this means for the future of development efforts in the region.

Download or read book Malawi written by Matthias Rompel and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-10-29 with total page 217 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Malawi is one of the poorest countries on the globe. Subsistence agriculture remains at the very heart of its social fabric, and also lies at the root of its tremendous poverty. Yet while Malawi is among the worst performers in terms of per capita income and infant mortality, it is also a surprising leader in other areas (such as freedom of the press), has enjoyed over fifty years of relative stability since independence, and still holds great potential for economic development. Bringing together some of the leading experts on the country, this collection offers a comprehensive introduction to contemporary Malawi, encompassing its economy, culture, and politics. An invaluable resource for scholars and development professionals alike, the book assesses the root causes of Malawi's impoverishment, and also offers insight into how the country might break out of its development impasse.

Download or read book Undoing Coups written by Antonia Witt and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-09-17 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since the beginnings of independence, a number of African nations have been plagued by repeated coup d'états. Within the African Union (AU), there has been a concerted effort to break this cycle through the official adoption of an 'anti-coup norm', by which the AU is mandated to suspend a member state and restore constitutional order following a coup. Supporters of this stance see it as strengthening democracy in Africa, while critics argue that it has served to prop up existing regimes. But there has been little analysis of what the AU's attempts to 'restore constitutional order' have meant for individual African states. In this book, Antonia Witt looks at the legacy of the AU's intervention in Madagascar following the 2009 'Malagasy crisis', one of the increasingly relevant yet under-researched cases of non-Western intervention in Africa. The book looks at the ways in which international intervention reconfigured the political order in Madagascar, how it facilitated the power struggle within the Madagascan elite and prevented more profound political change. It also considers what the example set by the Madagascan intervention means for the wider international order in Africa and the powers attributed to African international actors such as the AU.

Download or read book Decolonizing Civil Society in Mozambique written by Tanja Kleibl and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-08-26 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: By demonstrating that Western conceptions of 'civil society' have provided the framework for interpreting societies in the Global South, Decolonizing Civil Society in Mozambique argues that it is only through a critical deconstruction of these concepts that we can start to re-balance global power relationships, both in academic discourse and in development practices. Examining the exclusionary discourses framing the support for Western-type NGOs in the development discourse - often to the exclusion of local social actors - this book dissects mainstream contemporary ideas about 'civil society', and finds a new means by which to identify local forms of social action, often based in traditional structures and spiritual discourses. Outlining new conceptual ideas for an alternative framing of Mozambique's 'civil society', Kleibl proposes a series of fresh theoretical issues and questions alongside empirical research, moving towards a series of new policy and practice arguments for rethinking and decolonizing civil society in the Global South.

Download or read book Ironies of Solidarity written by Erik Bähre and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Set in one of the world's most unequal and violent places, this ethnographic study reveals how insurance companies discovered a vast market of predominantly poor African clients. After apartheid ended in 1994, South Africa became a 'testing ground' for new insurance products, new marketing techniques and pioneering administrative models with a potentially global market. Drawing on Rorty's notion of irony for understanding how the contradictions inherent to solidarity affect inequality and conflict as well as drawing on a vast array of case studies, Ironies of Solidarity examines how both Africans enjoy the freedoms that they have gained in financial terms and how the onset of democracy effected the risks faced in everyday life. Bähre examines the ways in which policies are sold and claims are handled, offering a detailed analysis of South Africa's insurance sector.

Download or read book Securing the Harvest written by Joseph DeVries and published by CABI. This book was released on 2001 with total page 232 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Improved food security, led by increased productivity among Africa's many small-scale farmers, has been the aim of significant national and international effort in recent decades. It has proved to be one of the most critical challenges facing humankind. This book grew out of a two-year exploration conducted by the food security theme of The Rockefeller Foundation focusing on the potential for crop genetic improvement to contribute to food security among rural populations in Africa. It provides a critical assessment of the ways in which recent breakthroughs in biotechnology, participatory plant breeding, and seed systems can be broadly employed in developing and delivering more productive crop varieties in Africa's diverse agricultural environments. It also presents an analysis of current plant breeding and biotechnology strategies for the key crops in Africa including: maize, sorghum, cowpea, rice, and cassava. The book will appeal to plant breeders, biotechnologists, and seed distributors as well as policy-makers in the area of agricultural development.

Download or read book Entrepreneurs and SMEs in Rwanda written by David L. Poole and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2021-01-28 with total page 257 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Entrepreneurs and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) have become the darlings of neoliberal development thinking, with the received wisdom being that such enterprises hold the key to the economic transformation of low-income countries. This thinking has profoundly influenced development policy in Rwanda, but has singularly failed to deliver the much anticipated emergence of a new class of entrepreneurs and a vibrant SME sector. This book deconstructs the myths around entrepreneurship and SMEs, and reveals how neoliberal approaches towards microcredit and related programmes have failed to address the economic challenges facing countries like Rwanda. Drawing on his study of successful and aspiring entrepreneurs, Poole identifies the factors associated with successful entrepreneurship. He uncovers the unintended consequences of the entrepreneurship and SME development prescription, and offers key policy insights which have implications for Rwanda and beyond.

Download or read book We Are Not Starving written by Joeva Sean Rock and published by MSU Press. This book was released on 2022-09-01 with total page 197 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This critical text is a timely ethnography of how global powers, local resistance, and capital flows are shaping contemporary African foodways. Ghana was one of the first countries targeted by a group of US donors and agribusiness corporations that funded an ambitious plan to develop genetically modified (GM) crops for African farmers. The collective believed that GM crops would help farmers increase their yields and help spark a “new” Green Revolution on the continent. Soon after the project began in Ghana, a nationwide food sovereignty movement emerged in opposition to GM crops. Today, in spite of impressive efforts and investments by proponents, only two GM crops remain in the pipeline. Why, after years of preparation, millions of dollars of funding, and multiple policy reforms, did these megaprojects effectively come to a halt? One of the first ethnographies to take on the question of GM crops in the African context, We Are Not Starving: The Struggle for Food Sovereignty in Ghana blends archival analysis, interviews, and participant observation with Ghanaian scientists, farmers, activists, and officials. Ultimately the text aims to illuminate why GM crops have animated the country and to highlight how their introduction has opened an opportunity to air grievances about the systematic de-valuing and exploitation of African land, labor, and knowledge that have been centuries in the making.

Download or read book Eating Tomorrow written by Timothy A. Wise and published by The New Press. This book was released on 2019-02-05 with total page 271 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A powerful polemic against agricultural technology." —Nature A major new book that shows the world already has the tools to feed itself, without expanding industrial agriculture or adopting genetically modified seeds, from the Small Planet Institute expert Few challenges are more daunting than feeding a global population projected to reach 9.7 billion in 2050—at a time when climate change is making it increasingly difficult to successfully grow crops. In response, corporate and philanthropic leaders have called for major investments in industrial agriculture, including genetically modified seed technologies. Reporting from Africa, Mexico, India, and the United States, Timothy A. Wise's Eating Tomorrow discovers how in country after country agribusiness and its well-heeled philanthropic promoters have hijacked food policies to feed corporate interests. Most of the world, Wise reveals, is fed by hundreds of millions of small-scale farmers, people with few resources and simple tools but a keen understanding of what and how to grow food. These same farmers—who already grow more than 70 percent of the food eaten in developing countries—can show the way forward as the world warms and population increases. Wise takes readers to remote villages to see how farmers are rebuilding soils with ecologically sound practices and nourishing a diversity of native crops without chemicals or imported seeds. They are growing more and healthier food; in the process, they are not just victims in the climate drama but protagonists who have much to teach us all.