Title: THE SCIENCE OF 'CIVILIZED' AGRICULTURE: THE MIXED FARMING DISCOURSE IN ZIMBABWE
Abstract: The mixed farming discourse has been a central assumption of agricultural research and extension policy in Zimbabwe in the past century. It holds that cropping and livestock production should be integrated and managed in a closed homestead unit and should employ a particular package of technologies. Embedded in the seemingly neutral and objective technical language of this discourse are an array of assumptions. These include: a belief in the superiority of modern science to local knowledges and capacities; the understanding that agricultural systems undergo a process of linear, evolutionary change, with mixed farming as a 'progressive' step along this ladder; and the view that individualized land tenure is necessary for effective agricultural intensification. The mixed farming discourse has underpinned colonial interventions in agriculture in Zimbabwe and continues to play an important role in framing the debate on agriculture and livestock production and in setting the research and policy agenda in Zimbabwe and Africa more generally. Its persistence and persuasiveness derive in part from the fact that it has implicitly legitimated social control through spatial reorganization. Yet perhaps more importantly the discourse's simple, tidy narrative, which provides clear guidelines for policy-makers, has become institutionalized in Zimbabwe and so deeply entrenched in technical and bureaucratic thinking that it is difficult to question. This is not to imply that the mixed farming discourse is all-powerful. Local resistances to and reinterpretations of the discourse have led to the selective adoption, adaptation and rejection of its technical packages and implicit social goals.
Publication Year: 2000
Publication Date: 2000-10-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref']
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Cited By Count: 29
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