Accumulation and Dispossession: Cocoa Production, Rural Development and the Structural Adjustment Programme in Southwest Nigeria, 1986 – 1996
Loading...
Date
2018
Authors
Ajiola, F.O
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
A JOURNAL OF THE DEPARTMENT OF HISTORY & STRATEGIC STUDIES UNIVERSITY OF LAGOS
Abstract
The production and sales of cocoa were critical factors in rural development in colonial southwest Nigeria.
Although abundant literature exists on the contributions of cocoa to economic development in southwest Nigeria,
the impact of cocoa production on rural social relations, and community development in southwest Nigeria
during the period of the structural adjustment programme is yet to be fully explored. This paper, therefore,
examined the relationship between cocoa production and rural development in southwest Nigeria with a view
to mapping out the transformation that occurred in the postcolonial rural social formations. The data comes
from Idanre, the largest cocoa-producing town in the southwest, Nigeria. Primary and secondary sources were used.
These included oral interviews, which were conducted with informants purposively selected due to their
knowledge of cocoa production and community development in Idanre. Following economic liberalization and
abolition of the Cocoa Marketing Board in 1986, Idanre witnessed urban-rural migration, as many indigenes
and migrants outside the community returned to cocoa farming. These returnees competed for scarce resources
with the local population and at the same time, facilitated the introduction of innovation, both capital
investments, technological and modern socio-cultural traits. SAP also encouraged many non-cocoa producing
families to invest in the cocoa business and they made a fortune through which they contributed to the
transformation of both their livelihoods and the community.
Description
Scholarly articles
Keywords
Cocoa Production , Rural Development , Social Relations , Farm Settlement , Idanre , Southwest Nigeria. , Agrarian capitalism , Rural Livelihoods , Research Subject Categories::HUMANITIES and RELIGION::History and philosophy subjects::History subjects
Citation
Ajiola, F.O. (2018). Accumulation and Dispossession: Cocoa Production, Rural Development and the Structural Adjustment Programme in Southwest Nigeria, 1986 – 1996, Lagos Historical Review Vol 18, pp117-142