In Search of a Panacea

This book provides a historical account of contract farming and rural development in Sanyati. The research used the case study of Sanyati to trace the trends in the peasant economy back to the 1950s when the frontier region became included in the colonial state making processes. It uncovers the contestations underlying peasant-state relations in Sanyati’s contemporary history. The research contends that such contestations have been a result of peasant economic resistance to government policy failure in the post-independence state. The study highlights that ecological factors and policy frameworks are inextricably linked to the viability of peasant agriculture which anchors rural development. It provides an empirical demonstration of the introduction of contract farming as private sector, and later on state-led panacea to rural development. It unearths the duality of contract farming function to rural development, both in the positive and in the negative. The research has relied on primary sources and secondary literature in constructing this historical account.