Development through commodification: exploring apple commodity production as pesticide promotion in the High Atlas

Zachary A. Goldberg ()
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Zachary A. Goldberg: The Pennsylvania State University

Agriculture and Human Values, 2022, vol. 39, issue 2, No 11, 663-682

Abstract: Abstract Global development initiatives frequently promote agricultural commodity chain projects to improve livelihoods. In Morocco, development projects, including the Plan Maroc Vert (PMV), have promoted apple production in rural regions of the country. In order to access domestic markets, these new apple producers often use pesticides to meet market standards. Through situated ethnographic inquiry and commodity chain analysis, using a combination of surveys (n = 120) and interviews (n = 84) with apple wholesalers, government officials, along with farmers, this paper works to critique the PMV’s development approach that implicitly values commodification. By exploring interconnected processes of commodification, I link subsidized apple saplings and cold storage infrastructure to the dependence on pesticide usage, which has become a part of daily village life. This has important implications for community health and riparian ecosystems. Alternatively, I propose how we can imagine different development trajectories that decommodify livelihoods by focusing on local knowledge creation and diversification strategies.

Keywords: Pesticides; Commodification; Political ecology; Agrarian change; Africa; Plan Maroc Vert; Green revolution (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1007/s10460-021-10280-4

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