Matthew A. Schnurr

Interrogating the technocratic (neoliberal) agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa

This paper introduces a special issue that critically examines the dominant technocratic, neoliberal agenda for agricultural development and hunger alleviation in Africa. We briefly review the history of African agricultural and food security policy in the post-colonial period in order to contextualise the productionist approach embedded in the New Green Revolution for Africa, a strategy comprising the use of hybrid seeds, fertilisers, and pesticides to boost crop production. This approach is underpinned by a new and unprecedented level of public–private partnerships as donors actively work to promote the private sector and build links between African farmers, input suppliers, agro-dealers, agro-processors, and retailers. On the consumer end, increased supermarket penetration into poorer neighbourhoods is proffered as a solution to urban food insecurity. The papers in the special issue complicate understandings of this new approach and raise serious questions about its effectiveness as a strategy for increasing food production and alleviating hunger across the continent.

What do students learn from a role-play simulation of an international negotiation?

This article uses pre- and post-surveys to assess learning outcomes associated with a role-play simulation set within a fictionalized extension of the Convention on Biological Diversity. Quantitative and qualitative data suggest that the simulation increased student appreciation of the complexity of international negotiation, but decreased student interest and self-assessment of skill proficiency. These results underscore the learning potential of the role-play simulation: it challenges notions of student idealism, leaving students with a more realistic sense of why Multilateral Environmental Agreements are so difficult to negotiate in the real-world.

Should I Stay or Should I Go? Incorporating a Commitment to Fieldwork throughout an Academic Career

In this paper, four researchers who share a commitment to applied research and fieldwork methodologies reflect on the ambiguities associated with maintaining and adapting this commitment to changing professional, personal, and contextual situations. The authors focus on the use of fieldwork for the study and support of agricultural change in sub-Saharan Africa, as an example of a setting and topic in which long-term work in the field can improve understanding and support contextualized development. In analyzing a range of experiences associated with maintaining and adapting fieldwork approaches, we complicate and build upon the assertion that professional development pulls international development practitioners and applied researchers away from the field. The experiences analyzed in this paper suggest that the situation of changing orientations toward the field is not dichotomous, and that instead, a commitment to fieldwork can result in innovative approaches to remaining at least partially focused ‘outward’ and ‘downward.’ We argue that the epistemological underpinning of situated fieldwork, which recognizes partiality in knowledge and understanding, also requires reflexivity on the part of applied researchers. The reflections and analysis presented here broaden and ground conversations about research ethics, methodological consistencies, and innovative approaches to fieldwork.

GMOs and poverty: yield gaps, differentiated impacts and the search for alternative questions

ABSTRACT This short commentary reflects on the question: Can genetically modified (GM) crops help the poor? It aims not to provide a definitive answer but rather to grapple with the question itself, in the hope of illuminating some of the critical assumptions and values that shape exchanges on this polarising and politicised question.

Cotton as calamitous commodity: the politics of agricultural failure in Natal and Zululand, 1844–1933

This article follows the efforts of white settlers to impose cotton as an export crop in Natal and Zululand. Touted as a commodity capable of remaking land and life in the region in the 1850s, the 1860s, and again in the 1910s and 1920s, cotton never achieved more than marginal status in the regions agricultural economy. Its story is one of historical amnesia: although faith in the regions cotton prospects dipped following each spectacular failure, it was routinely resurrected once previous failures had been accounted for, or memories of them had faded. Two crucial issues are at the centre of this episodic history. First, I explore the logistics of planned expansion, and the reasons for the repeated collapse of cotton-growing schemes. Second, I unravel the side effects of these difficult and disappointing efforts and argue that, despite repeated failure, cotton facilitated important structural changes to the regions agricultural, political and economic landscape.

Can genetically modified crops help the poor? Incomplete answers to a flawed question

Can Genetically Modified (GM) crops help the poor? This question brought together 30 experts for a three-day workshop in the fall of 2015, hosted at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Combining scholarly, policy and activist perspectives, this interdisciplinary collective of scientists and social scientists spent three days wrestling with the implications of using GM crops as a tool to transform agricultural production for poor farmers around the world. The three commentaries in this special section offer some preliminary reflection on these exchanges. While by no means a representative account of the conversations that took place, these contributions underline some of the most contested implications that follow from this divisive question. First is the issue of specifying terms. Many of our in-person discussions hinged on how individuals defined the terminology within the question itself. Participants would often talk past each other by referencing different GM techniques, varieties and locations in which they had been deployed, leaving little room for fruitful interaction. The three commentators in this special section agree that any constructive exchange must begin with a precise definition of the terms contained within the question itself. Dowd-Uribe (2016) recommends specifying the nature of the technology, stressing in particular the distinction between first-generation GM crops (such as Bt cotton and Roundup Ready soybean), which developed to make farming in wealthier countries more productive and more profitable, and second-generation GM crops (such as disease-resistant cassava or biofortified banana), which are specially designed to address the concerns of poor farmers. Schnurr (2016) emphasises the very different risks presented by a GM open pollinated variety that will inevitably interbreed with its non-GM neighbours versus a GM clonal crop such as banana, with which the risk of genetic interaction is virtually nil. Smale (2016) dwells less on the definition of GM and focuses instead on the complex task of defining poverty, underlining its complexity and its heterogeneity. She further zeroes in on defining “help”; that is, understanding the relationship between seed improvement and rural transformations. While acknowledging that there is significant empirical evidence showing that increased yields can translate into tangible benefits for farmers on the ground, she also emphasises the corollary investments in the form of other inputs, institutions and policies, which are critical to ensuring yield-enhancing technologies positively impact farmer livelihoods. Much of the current scholarly literature collapses these variables together into an over-simplified question about GM’s potential for poor farmers. These commentaries are a

Investigating Student Perceptions of Knowledge Acquisition within a Role-Play Simulation of the Convention on Biological Diversity

Abstract This article investigates the particular mechanisms through which a role-play simulation impacts student perceptions of knowledge acquisition. Longitudinal data were mobilized in the form of quantitative and qualitative surveys to examine whether the simulation succeeded in increasing knowledge around both content and skills. It then delves deeper into the relationship between simulations and knowledge transmission by exploring the role of online technologies and stakeholder choice as mediators. This analysis reveals two major insights: (1) the importance of thoughtfully embedding the simulation within the overarching logic of the course itself, and (2) the potential contribution of online technologies to enhancing student knowledge acquisition.

The Boom and Bust of Zululand Cotton, 1910–1933

This article investigates the boom and bust of the largest cotton surge in South African history, which occurred in the years following Union. Cotton figured as a preferred crop within emerging national agricultural policy because it accorded with the political and ideological priorities of the new white settler state. By the late 1920s, however, cotton was in trouble, especially in the key Zululand growing area. There were two reasons for this dramatic downturn. The first stemmed from the social relations of production underpinning cotton-growing ventures: the Zululand boom enticed ill-suited settlers to cultivate a crop most knew precious little about. Cottons expansion into Zululand was poorly conceived and executed: officials and farmers selected unsuitable land, transport was inadequate, the labour supply was intermittent and insufficient. The second reason was the more trenchant issue of ecological incompatibility, which compounded mistakes in planning and production. Poor agricultural decision-making exacerbated environmental constraints to production, undermining Zululand cottons fortunes.

Commodity Cropping and the Delineation of Agricultural Space in Natal, 1850-1863

ABSTRACT This article recounts the efforts of Natals first Secretary for Native Affairs, Theophilus Shepstone, to introduce cotton as a commodity crop among the colonys Zulu population. Generally considered as a response to Britains dwindling supply of raw cotton, I argue that this push for cotton was fuelled by motivations that were political more than agricultural; that cotton was first and foremost about delineating African and settler space and establishing a political order. When cotton failed, blame was heaped on Zulu growers who were lambasted for their inferior work ethic. The second part of this article investigates the abrupt failure of Zulu cotton cultivation in Natal, contending that environmental and economic factors explain the crops failure more than cultural ones.