new dynamics of agrarian change in bolivia's soy complex

290 Pages·2017·11.38 MB·English

T P C :
HE OLITICS OF ONTROL
N D A C
EW YNAMICS OF GRARIAN HANGE IN
B ’ S C
OLIVIA S OY OMPLEX

Ben McKay
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© Benedict McKay 2017

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,
photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission
of the author.

Funding was provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada (SSHRC) Award 752-2012-1258.

Printed in The Netherlands.

ISBN 978-90-6490-072-3

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T P C
HE OLITICS OF ONTROL
New Dynamics of Agrarian Change
in Bolivia’s Soy Complex

DE POLITIEK VAN CONTROLE
NIEUWE DYNAMIEK VAN DE AGRARISCHE VERANDERING
IN BOLIVIA'S SOJA-COMPLEX

Thesis

to obtain the degree of Doctor from the
Erasmus University Rotterdam
by command of the
rector magnificus
Professor dr. H.A.P. Pols
and in accordance with the decision of the Doctorate Board

The public defence shall be held on
Friday 21 April 2017 at 16.00 hrs
by
Benedict McKay
born in Canada
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Doctoral Committee

Doctoral Dissertation Supervisors
Prof. dr. M.N. Spoor
Prof. dr. S.M. Borras Jr.

Other members
Prof. dr. H. Veltmeyer, Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Canada
Dr. K. Jansen, Wageningen University and Research
Dr. M. Arsel
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To my mother, for her unconditional love and support
and for giving me a world of opportunity

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Contents

List of Tables, Figures and Maps x
Acronyms xii
Acknowledgements xiv
Abstract xvii
Samenvatting xix
1 INTRODUCTION 1
1.1 Introduction 1
1.2 Contemporary dynamics of agrarian change: context and
problematique 3
1.3 The Bolivian case 22
1.4 Methodology, methods and study sites 27
1.4.1 Mixed methods approach 28
1.4.2 Household survey 30
1.4.3 Qualitative data collection 34
1.4.4 Cuatro Cañadas 36
1.4.2 San Julián 41
1.5 Organization of the study and its main arguments 46
Notes 48
2 THE POLITICS OF CONTROL 50
2.1 Introduction 50
2.2 Power, property and access relations 51
2.2.1 Relations of power 51
2.2.2 Relations of access 56
2.3 The state-society-capitalist nexus 60
2.4 Conclusion: towards a politics of control 65
Notes 67
vi
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Contents vii
3 THE RISE OF THE SOY COMPLEX AND THE ‘UNITED SOYBEAN
REPUBLIC’ IN LATIN AMERICA 68
3.1 Introduction 68
3.2 The rise of soybeans in Brazil and Latin America 71
3.3 The agro-industrial soy complex 76
3.3.1 Commodification and concentration upstream 76
3.3.2 Control, substitutionism and ‘flexing’ downstream 82
3.3.3 (Trans-)Latin American capital, pools de siembra and contract
farming 85
3.4 Conclusion 88
Notes 89
4 LAND CONTROL: BOLIVIA’S AGRARIAN STRUCTURE AND FRONTIER
EXPANSION 90
4.1 Introduction 90
4.2 Historical context 90
4.2.1 Bolivia’s Mennonite colonies 93
4.2.2 The ‘eastern landlord bias’ 95
4.3 Neoliberal multiculturalism: accumulation with legitimacy? 98
4.4 Foreign capital and soybean expansion: Brazilian experiences 107
4.6 Conclusion 115
Notes 115
5 STATE CONTROL: THE POLITICS OF AGRARIAN CHANGE UNDER EVO 117
5.1 Introduction 117
5.2 The Agrarian Revolution: reclaiming state legitimacy 118
5.3 The Productive Revolution: The State-Capital Alliance 123
5.4 Mechanisms of social and economic exclusion 131
5.4.1 The ‘partida’ arrangement: a new mechanism of exclusion 133
5.5 ‘Productive exclusion’ and implications for agrarian change 137
5.5.1 Gender and generational forms of exclusion 141
5.5.2 Toxicity and health hazards 146
5.6 The simple reproduction ‘squeeze’ and surplus population 148
5.7 Functional dualism and the state-society-capital nexus 152
5.7.1 Functional dualism 152
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viii THE POLITICS OF CONTROL: AGRARIAN CHANGE IN BOLIVIA’S SOY COMPLEX
5.7.2 State-society-capital nexus: signs of crises within and
beyond the soy complex 154
5.8 Conclusion 156
Notes 158
6 VALUE-CHAIN CONTROL: RELATIONS OF DEBT AND DEPENDENCY 160
6.1 Introduction 160
6.2 Industrial value-chain agriculture and transnational capital 160
6.3 Control grabbing and the spatio-temporal fix 178
6.4 Conclusion 183
Notes 184
7 AGRARIAN EXTRACTIVISM AND THE POLITICS OF CONTROL 185
7.1 Introduction 185
7.2 Extractivism, neo-extractivism and agrarian extractivism 187
7.2.1 Extractivism 187
7.2.2 New or ‘neo’ extractivism 189
7.2.3 The new ‘extractivism’ in Bolivia 192
7.2.4 Agrarian extractivism 196
7.3 Agrarian extractivism in Bolivia 198
7.3.1 Large volumes of materials extracted destined for export
with little or no processing 198
7.3.2 Value-chain concentration and sectoral disarticulation 200
7.3.3 High intensity of environmental degradation 201
7.3.4 Deterioration of labour opportunities and/or conditions 208
7.4 Agrarian extractivism and the politics of control 209
7.5 Conclusion 214
Notes 217
8 CONCLUSION 218
8.1 Introduction 218
8.2 New dynamics of control, exclusion and extraction 219
8.3 The politics of control: power, access, and the state 221
8.4 Trajectories of agrarian change and broader implications of this
study 225
8.4 Epilogue 229
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Contents ix
Note 230
Appendix: Key informant interviews 231
References 239

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List of Tables, Figures and Maps

Tables
1.1 Household survey socio-economic characteristics 32
2.1 Landholding structure, Cuatro Cañadas 37
4.1 Annual deforestation by type of actors and expansion of cultivated
areas 100
4.2 Land occupation by actors and five zones (documented until 2004) 111
5.1 Soybean Production Costs, Expansion Zone, summer harvest
(USD/ha) 136
5.2 Soy complex employment generation, summer harvest 141
6.1 Agribusiness established in Bolivia in the value chain of oilseed
economy 166
6.2 Revenue distribution of the soy complex: Smallholders, producers
and agro-industry 170
6.3 Agro-industry: Market share, revenue ranking and tax contribution 176
6.4 Land area under cultivation, per crop type 182
7.1 Expanding the extractivist frontier: protected areas and petroleum
contracts 192
7.2 Power, exclusion, and access mechanisms 210
Figures
1.2 Landholding structure, San Julián 42
3.1 Hectares of soybean harvest in the ‘United Soybean Republic’ 77
3.2 Production costs of seed, fertilizer and chemicals per planted acre
of soybean, United States 82
5.1 Landholding structure for soybean producers, Santa Cruz, 2011 134
x
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