Entrepreneurial Exploitation: Neoliberal Financialization and Small-scale Investors in the Case of Turkish Maize Farmers

• In Event: 286 - Section on Sociology of Development Roundtable Session (one-hour).
  In Paper Session: Table 04. Trade, Investment and Commodities

Abstract

The Turkish agricultural sector underwent significant transformations during the first decade of the 21st century with the implementation of economic restructuring policies. The share of agricultural employment, compared to other employment sectors, declined sharply, along with the production of traditional labor-intensive crops. In the same period, industrial maize production, as a crop supported by government incentives, nearly doubled, due to the increase in productivity and cultivation area. Through a commodity system analysis, this paper investigates the change in social relations of commodity production and capital accumulation in the agricultural sector. With the qualitative analysis of thirty in-depth interviews with farmers, industry representatives and state officials, I investigate the impacts of the agro-food industry, commercialization, expansion of agricultural credit markets, and state policies on the changing relations of production in the Turkish rural landscape. Although large maize farmers possess advantages in financing production and in securing profits, the importance of small-scale maize farmers continues within the agricultural system driven by agro-food businesses. The dependence of smallholders on production credits weakens the bargaining position of a large number of smallholders, rendering them ideal raw material suppliers from the perspective of the maize processing agro-industries. The changing relations of production in industrial maize production in Turkey highlight the need for nuanced perspectives on accumulation and exploitation. I develop the concept of “entrepreneurial exploitation” to redirect critical political economy studies from "primitive accumulation" to the subtle, yet exploitative, relationships between small investors and the larger sector in which the former are embedded.

Author

• Yetkin Borlu, Pennsylvania State University