Tobacco, Transformation and Development Dilemmas from Central Africa

This book takes the reader through the expansion, restructuring and possible salvation of Malawi's main industry, tobacco. Malawi has been dependent on tobacco exports for a century, but now, with demand for Malawian tobacco declining fast, the country needs to diversify rapidly. The authors combine an innovative range of theory and methods to provide a comprehensive and incisive analysis of the dilemmas faced by countries which still rely on a limited number of agricultural commodities in the 21st century. This work will be ideal for scholars and researchers interested in political economy and African development.

Explores the dilemmas faced by countries which still rely on a limited number of agricultural commodities in the 21st century Examines the role elites and international firms play in the distribution of profits from the main industry Captures the 'development dilemma' not just in Central Africa but across much of the Global South

Autorentext

Martin Prowse is Lecturer at the University of Manchester, UK. He has worked at the Overseas Development Institute, UK, and at universities in Belgium, Denmark and Sweden. His research focuses on equity in agricultural intensification, value chains and climate change, mostly in Africa.
Paul Grassin is a Researcher at the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, with expertise in social stratification, cultural anthropology and comparative politics. His research focuses on the production of social order, the sociology of the police and police-people relations in urban and rural Malawi.

Zusammenfassung

"The monograph is an informative, if short (139 pages), study of Malawi's main income earner, the tobacco sector, with a specific focus on smallholder burley tobacco production. ... The authors use quantitative and qualitative methods with value chain and political economic analyses to raise questions and suggest answers for the tobacco sector, particularly smallholder burley tobacco production, and for broader economic development." (Pauline E. Peters, Journal of Agrarian Change, May, 2020)

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. Smallholder Burley Reform Process and Maize Production in Malawi 1990 2005.- 3. A Comparative Value Chain Analysis of Smallholder Production - 2003/4 and 2009/10.- 4. Traceability and the Global Tobacco Value Chain.- 5. Brokers and Bondage at the Coalface of Contract Farming.- 6. Competition and the Institutional Architecture for Contract Farming.- 7. A Very Short Political Economy of Malawi.- 8. Conclusion.