Paper short abstract:

Emerging land-investment regulation in Senegal calls for a strong role of the State in development economics and for its articulation with governance mechanisms. This articulation allows State to both support accumulation and pursue own governmental goals while avoiding confrontation with locals.

Paper long abstract:

In the last years, private flows into African agriculture have begun to grow, combined with a rise in large-scale land deals. Investors have been encouraged by policies enacted by host States, coming within transnational development guidelines assessing agribusiness contribution to Africa economy. With the aim of facilitating land-access for new investors and granting them favorable conditions to set agricultural projects, these policies are mostly embracing neoliberal configurations, setting free-tax regimes and constituting special economic zones. Senegal has strongly embarked upon the implementation of this development strategy, especially in the region of Senegal River Delta. However, the localization of agribusiness projects on pastoral lands, and in competition with smallholding family-farming, highlights the dispossessing and extractive character of this policy. This paper addresses current agribusiness projects as part of the so-called post-development geographies, i.e. processes of territorial fragmentation within the State, engendering differential arrangements of economic expansion and social exclusion. Drawing from fieldwork on conflicts over a large-scale investment, the paper focuses on governing procedures associated with investments and conflicts governance. It evidences how the scenario of land-investment regulation in Senegal calls for a particular articulation between state action and governance mechanisms. The paper further argues that within this state-governance interaction, the State acts as a supporter of accumulation processes but it also strategically builds on capitalist dynamics to pursue its own governmental goals and avoid confrontation with locals. Finally, this paper addresses the emerging governing strategy in Senegal through the lens of new power assemblages reflecting State transformations in post-development economies.