‘My hunger has brought business’: ‘efficiency’ and the de-moralizing logic of maize distribution in an era of market liberalization

Abstract

The adoption of maize market liberalization policies in Zambia marked the beginning of a radical transformation of government institutions and ideologies. The maize marketing boards and input credit schemes that characterized the post-independence humanist project in Zambia were replaced by the ideology of ‘efficiency’ and a reification of markets as the vehicle to poverty reduction and food security. Using ethnographic and historical data, this article situates the ‘farming as a business’ development model within the broader context of this political economic transition. It shows how the interaction between the growing legitimacy of business-oriented maize farming and liberalized maize markets create conditions for a cycle of hunger in rural Zambia, by eroding the terms by which food insecure people acquire maize through piecework systems, loans, and food gifts.