'It's very not fair': Maize, money, and moral economies in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania

Natasha Alice Watts

doi:10.2458/v25i1.22009

Abstract

Over the past decade there has been increased emphasis on agricultural development in Africa to meet a nexus of challenges including global food security, national and local economic growth and employment creation, energy security, and the search for new profit frontiers. This is occurring at a time of decreasing public funding for agricultural development, and a deeper focus on the potentially speculative and predatory nature of financial models in the wake of the financial crisis in the late 2000s. One outcome has been the development of innovative financing mechanisms. An example is social impact investing (SII), which aims to generate financial returns and positive social impacts for intended beneficiaries. In this article, I examine an SII programme in the Tanzanian agricultural sector. I unpack what happens when its vision of 'ethical capitalism' is implemented in the context of farmer livelihoods and moral economies, especially at a time of environmental disruption. In doing so, I argue for the continuing relevance of studying moral economies within political ecology.

Highlights

The past two decades have seen increasingly urgent calls to boost agricultural production in Africa in response to the 'perfect storm' of urbanisation, meatification of diets, increasing pressures on land and water resources, and climate change (Conway 1997; Godfray et al 2010)
Some financial actors aim to produce a financial return, but one that is directly correlated with positive developmental social impacts through so-called 'social impact investing' (SII) (Brest and Born 2013; Bugg-Levine and Emerson 2011; O'Donohoe et al 2010)
I conclude that in times of good harvest the Panther model worked well, its collapse when faced with environmental disruptions exposed fundamental incompatibilities between the financial model and farmer moral economies and demonstrated the challenge of imposing a rigid financial model onto complex and flexible rural realities

Summary

Introduction

The past two decades have seen increasingly urgent calls to boost agricultural production in Africa in response to the 'perfect storm' of urbanisation, meatification of diets, increasing pressures on land and water resources, and climate change (Conway 1997; Godfray et al 2010). SII is occurring at a range of scales carried out by a variety of actors, from commercial banks and private equity houses, to international development donors and foundations, and the emergence of smaller-scale and project-specific organisations. It is operating on a spectrum from philanthropic capital to returns driven capital, and through a variety of forms. The article explores what happens when the Panther model met farmer realities in the context of environmental disruptions, focusing on the disjuncture between visions of ethical capitalism and farmer moral economies. I conclude that in times of good harvest the Panther model worked well, its collapse when faced with environmental disruptions exposed fundamental incompatibilities between the financial model and farmer moral economies and demonstrated the challenge of imposing a rigid financial model onto complex and flexible rural realities

Political ecology engagement with studying moral economies

Panther Progress

Environmental disruptions in Lower Kilolo in 2015

Findings

Clashes between Panther and participating farmers