Neither sustainable nor inclusive: a political economy of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia
This study assesses the challenge of achieving ‘sustainable and inclusive intensification’
Abstract
The food crisis of 2007/8, alongside rapid population growth, and the uncertainties of climate change propelled African agricultural transformation back into the development mainstream. New narratives of ‘climate-smart agriculture’ and ‘sustainable intensification’ underlie this contemporary transformation. The authors present a political economy analysis of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, and use this to assess the challenge of achieving ‘sustainable and inclusive intensification’. They find little evidence that agricultural institutions have the capacity to deliver sustainable intensification in agriculture, or that agricultural policy drives changes in agricultural livelihoods that will make them either more sustainable or inclusive
This research is part of the Sustainable Agricultural Intensification Research and Learning in Africa (SAIRLA) programme
Citation
Anna Mdee, Alesia Ofori, Michael Chasukwa & Simon Manda (2020) Neither sustainable nor inclusive: a political economy of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, The Journal of Peasant Studies, DOI: 10.1080/03066150.2019.1708724