African seed systems : the crises of food security and the rights of the farmer in Africa's globalising food regime

Abstract

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (International Relations), 2017Through a close reading of the changes that have occurred within African agriculture using Food Regime Theory, this study will attempt to further understand the impact that has been felt by small-scale farmers who are a dominant feature of African agriculture. This paper will seek to understand the influence that the increased corporatization of agriculture through globalization has had on the small-scale farmer in Africa. As agriculture has become more and more corporatized and commodi:ied, it becomes important to consider the changes that have occurred for those actors within the industry and how these changes will impact them. This paper is attempting to do that through a close reading of the changes that have taken place within an integral part of the agricultural process: the seed.GR201