The political economy of the maize Filiere

This study first introduces the notion of filieres (vivrieres) - (food) commodity chains - as a useful approach to investigating the interconnected activities, agents and dynamics of the maize sector in South Africa. A political economy of maize is proposed in relation to the maize boom of the 1960s and 1970s, and the growing pressures on maize farming subsequently. This political economy links the analysis of class forces and forms of capital to that of specific institutional mechanisms of regulation (in its broad sense). It concludes that 'deregulation', in the narrow (and misconceived) sense of market liberalisation, is inadequate to restructure the maize industry to meet the needs of a democratic South Africa, including that of food security in conditions of widespread poverty, both rural and urban.