Fixity, the discourse of efficiency, and enclosure in the Sahelian land ‘reserve’

Abstract

The spate of foreign investments in land in developing countries in recent years has sparked speculation about trends in agriculture in developing countries, including the nature of land consolidation and the tradeoffs between food sovereignty and export-oriented growth. Consistent with policy favoring mechanization, irrigation, and chemical inputs, the economy of scale and access to infrastructure provided by large concessions is viewed as a means to overcome biophysical production constraints. Domestic officials legitimize large concessions through references to stores of available ‘idle’ and ‘marginal’ land. However, this raises important questions about the historical track records of modern management techniques as well as existing claims on these lands. Low productivity areas are heavily used by pastoralists as extensive grazing tracts, but these lands have historically been viewed as an agricultural reserve. In the Sahel, policy discourse around large-scale leases has a long...