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Title: | Institutionalising the Bio-Revolution: Implications for Nigerian Smallholders |
Author: | Meagher, Kate![]() |
Year: | 1990 |
Periodical: | The Journal of Peasant Studies |
Volume: | 18 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | October |
Pages: | 68-89 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Nigeria |
Subjects: | biotechnology small farms Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Development and Technology |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/03066159008438443 |
Abstract: | The contention that the new biotechnology can be directed to serve the interests of smallholders ignores the international institutional pressures created by the new technology. The first section of this article analyses the elements of the international institutional framework geared toward the privatization of biogenetically engineered products and processes in Nigeria. The second section discusses the relationship of agro-industry to States and markets, focusing on how each mediates the penetration of biotechnology, on the one hand, and the resistance of Nigerian smallholders to such penetration, on the other. The third section looks at the ways in which current institutional changes in Nigerian agriculture have affected, and are likely to affect, the uses made of biogenetic technology. The cases of palm oil, cocoa, sorghum and cassava are discussed. At each stage the discernible socioeconomic implications of the new technology are assessed, with a particular focus on its probable impact on Nigerian smallholders. Regardless of its potential, the actual trajectory of biogenetic technology clearly points the way to the marginalization of smallholder agriculture in favour of larger production units capable of providing lucrative markets for the products of biotechnology. A concluding section considers possible strategies for countering some of the negative effects. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. |