The Political Economy of West African Agriculture
The Political Economy of West African Agriculture
£43.00
GBPWest Africa's agriculture has, for 150 years, been heavily geared toward export, yet the region is one of the world's poorest. Keith Hart examines this question, focusing particularly on how this situation has affected the indigenous peoples of West Africa. Commerce has grown impressively, but productivity remains low and capital accumulation is retarded. The reasons exist primarily in internal conditions shaping social institutions. Before, during, and since colonialism, the particular problems of these preindustrial states have shaped agricultural development more than the pressure supposedly emanating from the 'world system' of international capitalism. This book, following the classical economists as well as Marx and Lenin, argues for the necessity of rapid capitalist penetration into West African agriculture. The book is also a readable introduction to the history and ethnography of the region as a whole.
Product details
July 1982Paperback
9780521284233
240 pages
228 × 152 × 17 mm
0.33kg
Available
Table of Contents
- Acknowledgements
- 1. Introduction
- 2. West Africa's economic backwardness in anthropological perspective
- 3. The organization of agricultural production
- 4. The state in agricultural development
- 5. The market and capital in agricultural development
- 6. The social impact of commercial agriculture
- 7. What is to be done?
- Notes
- Select annotated bibliography
- Supplementary bibliography
- Index.
