Seeds of hope’: Modified seeds, fertilizers and the agrarian fallacy among African grain farmers in colonial Zimbabwe, the 1950s to 1979.

• In Event: Extraction, Nutrition, and the Challenges of Environmental Control in Southern Africa.

Abstract

On June 14, 1954, the Matobo Research Station launched a hybrid SR52 maize seed onto the local market. Despite complementing a variety of agrochemicals including fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides already in wide use by both African and white settler farmers, it received lukewarm appreciation from farmers. By the mid-1950s, fertilizer and insecticide use by African farmers was promoted by the state-controlled Agricultural Rural Development Authority (ARDA), targeted at improving both the quality and quantities of African yields following the enforcement of the Land Husbandry Act in 1951. Yet, the results were penurious. By exploring the development of agrochemicals – modified seeds, fertilizers, insecticides, and herbicides – this paper revisits the social, economic, and environmental development of African peasant agriculture over the colonial period. Drawing on the experiences of grain (both maize and small grains) farmers, I argue that most agrochemicals did little to offer a lasting solution to the African agricultural and food problems. If anything, they churned out a myriad of challenges. Between the 1950s to 1979, yields declined, many farmers found themselves trapped in debt, discontent and believing that agrochemicals were a curse from their ancestors. Following this story the paper reflects on the complex relationship between power, ecology, and culture within the fault lines of agrarian development as experienced by farmers in Zimbabwe.

Author

• Kauma Bryan, Southwestern University