Paper short abstract:

This paper investigates the rise of soy in Zambia, examines the role of agribusiness in restructuring local agro-food systems and analyses the impacts of crop booms on seed and food sovereignty. This analysis is based on qualitative research that was conducted in Zambia’s Mumbwa district.

Paper long abstract:

African food systems are collapsing and failing to feed and sustain millions of vulnerable urban and rural dwellers that depend on a combination of own production and increasingly burgeoning food markets to ensure their food security at the hands of converging crises. The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa estimates that 55 million Africans went into extreme poverty in 2020 and reversed more than two decades of poverty reduction on the continent. The current food price crisis is highlighting even deeper cracks and vulnerabilities in African food systems resulting from the lock-in effects of the dominant model of food production that relies on high levels of food and energy imports. Increasing levels of corporatisation in African food systems are not only restructuring patterns of access to and use of land, but are also dramatically changing local diets. I explore how the gradual shift towards rotational cropping and monocultures within the context of crop booms, with a focus on how the rise of soy is undermining seed and food sovereignty in Zambia’s countryside. The analysis considers the impacts of these changes on the governance of Zambia food systems. The emergence of soybean as a booming crop and the different roles it adopts in domestic markets has resulted in significant changes in food production and markets, underpinned by the consolidation of corporate power in Zambia’s agro-food sector. This analysis is based on qualitative research that was conducted in Zambia’s Mumbwa district.

Key words: agro-food systems, food sovereignty, seed sovereignty, soy