The Growth and Decline of a Mechanical Agriculture Scheme in West Africa
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 6023000 |
|---|---|
| Authors | M C Jedrej (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 82 |
| Issue | 329 |
| Pages | 541-558 |
| Publication date | 1983-10-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | African Affairs (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0001-9909 • E-ISSN: 1468-2621 |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press (OUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1093/oxfordjournals.afraf.a097554 |
| OpenAlex | W60410739 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
THIS ARTICLE describes the beginnings, development and failure after 25 years of a large scale mechanical cultivation scheme in Sierra Leone, West Africa. An examination of the decline shows that it was not due to technical factors, either mechanical or agricultural, peculiar to the tropics. There were, of course, from the beginning trials and experiments to find the most suitable equipment and techniques but this is typical of agricultural mechanization anywhere. Nor could failure be attributed to large scale mechanical operations being inappropriate in an undeveloped local social and economic context seen as consisting of technologically ignorant and backward peasants. On the contrary, the farmers responded rationally and effective new institutions emerged. The scheme collapsed not because of its incompatibilities in the area of its operations but because of its origins and what was considered appropriate in the capital, Freetown, and ultimately in the capitalist world system
Agriculture · Archaeology · Capital (architecture · Context (archaeology · Development economics · Economic growth · Economics · Geography · Mechanization · Scale (ratio · Sierra leone · Tropics · Agriculture and Rural Development Research · Ecology
| Citations per year | 0.1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 1995 - 2022 (28) |
| Highly cited | No |