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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Development of Capitalism and the Transformation of the Peasantry in Kenya
Authors:Buch-Hansen, Mogens
Kieler, Jan
Year:1983
Periodical:Rural Africana
Issue:15-16
Period:Winter-Spring
Pages:13-40
Language:English
Geographic term:Kenya
Subjects:agricultural development
agroindustry
small farms
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
Labor and Employment
Economics and Trade
Abstract:Change in African agriculture is normally considered to take place at a very slow pace. The transformation of Kenyan agriculture in the last eighty years, however, contradicts this viewpoint. The authors describe three stages in the development of Kenyan agriculture: 1) stage of the disruption of traditional systems by the establishment and advancement of European agriculture; 2) stage of the elaboration of the Swynnerton Plan in the 1950s with expanding African cash crop production and change of land tenure system to one of individual ownership; 3) stage beginning in the late 1960s with the establishment of agribusiness and agroindustrial production based on contracts with small-scale farmers. The introduction of agribusiness (tea, sugar, tobacco and horticulture) was the third change in Kenyan agriculture. The creation of the reserves made a serious break in the traditional trend of development; the market integration of the smallholders laid the foundation for capitalist development; agribusiness strengthened the capitalist development. This article describes some of the features of Kenyan agribusiness and its consequences for the small-scale farmers with regard to production, land use patterns and development infrastructure. Fig., notes.
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