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P101
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Conflict Over Natural Resources and Food (In)Security: How do conflicts influence urban food-provision?
Short Abstract:
In most sub-Saharan Africa cities, there is an increased need of food supply from rural or suburban areas. However, most rural areas face several problems that create conflicts which weaken food production systems.
Long Abstract:
In most sub-Saharan Africa cities, there is an increased need of food supply from rural or suburban areas. However, most rural areas face several problems that create conflicts which weaken food production systems. These difficulties can be linked to hard agro-climatic conditions and /or effects of population growth, and also to the socio-political crises which are manifesting by an increased struggle over control of land and other resources. These situations occur in a context where the amount of resources is unstable and steadily declining, which affect subsequently the access to the market for some producers. In addition, the economic transactions between rural and urban areas are reduced, especially for areas located in the countryside. Therefore, such factors affect the configuration of social interactions in rural area which tend to increase conflicts. For example, the obstruction of migration routes due to the spread farmers' fields on the way usually taken by pastoralists is a cause of tension and violent conflicts. Given this fact, the safety of producers is then undermined and the supply of goods for urban consumers is affected.
This panel intends to identify factors promoting the emergence of conflicts over natural resources that can affect food security for rural, suburban and urban populations.
Accepted papers:
Session 1
Paddy rice farming and land tenure conflicts in Casamance, Senegal
Martin Evans
(University of Chester)
Paper short abstract:
For current attempts to upscale domestic paddy rice production by the Senegalese government to succeed, the creation of larger land holdings appears to be essential. However, this is problematic in Casamance, in the south of the country, amid long-standing tensions and conflicts over land tenure.
Paper long abstract:
For current attempts to upscale domestic paddy rice production by the Senegalese government to succeed, addressing land tenure issues appears to be essential. Larger holdings are necessary to allow agricultural mechanisation and to facilitate other economies of scale. In one of the main rice-growing areas of the country - Casamance, in the south - no clear strategy or will to address it is evident, however. In Lower Casamance, where paddy rice farming is characterised by small, fragmented holdings, the issue tends to be avoided or inaction conveniently parked by officials under excuses about 'difficult' populations or their 'culture'. In reality this masks well-founded tensions around this matter on both sides. Smallholders are understandably wary because of historical sensitivities over land tenure within some communities and are more generally mistrustful of state intervention in land tenure due to past abuses, some of which helped to fuel the long-running separatist rebellion in Casamance. Officials themselves recognise that tenure remains a divisive issue in the area and could cause further conflict. Elsewhere, however - notably in a large state-run project in Upper Casamance - tensions over land seem to have been less evident, ironically because there was little history of smallholder rice farming in the area.
Urbanization, governance of access to natural resources and food insecurity in Tiassalé, Côte d'Ivoire
Alexis Koffi
(Universite Alassane Ouattara de Bouake/Cote D’Ivoire)
Paper short abstract:
Secondary cities in Africa face scarcity of natural resources due to urban growth. In Côte d’Ivoire specifically urban growth generates changes within communities related to the management of these resources (land, water, and forest). The consequences of decision-making-processes about the access and use of natural resources impact the food supply chain in local communities in Tiassalé (southern Côte d’Ivoire), rural as well urban communities.
Paper long abstract:
This talk deals with urbanization, local governance of natural resources and what food insecurity means for households in Tiassalé, Côte d'Ivoire. It focuses on decision-making strategies related to the management of natural resources as well as subsequent impacts on food insecurity. The scarcity and/or precariousness of natural resources are the consequences of uncontrolled urbanization along the rural-urban continuum, which makes food production systems vulnerable.
In this context, characterized by difficulties in the access and dissatisfaction in the use of natural resources, poverty leads to serious pressure over resources, which induces changes in community rules in the handling of these resources. Tiassalé, a secondary town in Côte d'Ivoire, offers an opportunity to observe urbanization processes, natural resources governance issues, and subsequent conflicts. Furthermore, how does the governance of access to natural resources in an urban context affects food production systems along the rural-urban continuum within the communities of Tiassalé?
"We remain true guerrillas despite our unheralded contribution!" Chimurenga II and women farmers in Marange/Zimunya, 1966-1979
Bernard Kusena
(University Of Zimbabwe)
Paper short abstract:
Rural women secured household food during wartime far ahead of their urban counterparts despite elitist meta-narratives recognizing only veterans in senior government positions. Glossing over this onerous task endured by women beclouds the reality that no war could be sustained on empty stomachs.
Paper long abstract:
In many conflict situations the world over, women and children often bear the brunt of the vicissitudes of fighting. Once women are displaced from their traditional chores of fending for their families, misery and discomfort of whole families arise; the food situation spirals out of control if the very same women are expected to contribute food to the war effort. This paper argues that, although the narratives of the Second Chimurenga/Umvukela II attribute the eventual triumph of Africans to various elite individuals and groups alike, the economics of women participation in matters of food security conspicuously escaped scholarly attention. Women, along with their children, cultivated lands to produce food indispensable for the survival of their households, in addition to which they literally cooked for the guerrillas, in which process they sometimes sustained injuries or died altogether in the crossfire when belligerents frequently opened fire throughout the long duration of the war. Glossing over this onerous task endured by women beclouds the reality that no war could be sustained on empty stomachs, which this paper clarifies. In using archival material, engaging with secondary sources and conducting interviews with women food security revolutionaries and other stakeholders, this paper concludes that the majority of women played a critical role in the war, but ultimately gained much less than they had anticipated at its inception, although only a few of them entered the political arena as public figures to which they received recognition.
Urban elites and economic dependence in the Republic of Sudan
Alfredo Langa Herrero
(ASH Berlin)
Paper short abstract:
This article analyzes the role and evolution of the Sudanese urban elites as a significant aspect of the economic dependence of the Republic of Sudan since its political independence.
Paper long abstract:
The Republic of Sudan has been an economically dependent country since its political independence. Different metropoles have exploited its resources, conditioned parts of the national economy, and influenced the decision-making processes of the local urban elites. Such dependence has maintained a dual character. In the North, an export economy ruled by urban elites and connected with international markets has coexisted with a traditional sector based on subsistence economies. In the South, the economy, in contrast, has relied solely on pre-capitalist activities and has been subordinated to northern rural elites.
This article studies the evolution and role of the different urban elites that have ruled Sudan as an important aspect in order to explain economic dependence as well as armed conflicts and repression. Dependence is regarded as an important feature of the complexity of the Sudanese conflict scenario and a characteristic of its urban elites. Therefore, dependence has crystallized as an essential face of the exercise of hegemony by the urban elites in order to understand the widespread underdevelopment and food insecurity across most of the Sudanese regions.