Abstract
This paper explores the organization of production in Rwanda’s main coffee producing zone. Most rural households in the region have limited access to land and stable employment. Yet, while differences in property and employment appear small from afar, this paper shows why they are consequential: even when marginal, these differences interact with time and market pressures (e.g. relative dependence on household food production or need for cash) that shape the complex and gendered labour relations between and within generally land-poor households. In a context of heightened precarity, such a labour-centred approach helps chart the prevailing trajectories of accumulation and exploitation.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 1181-1206 |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Journal | Journal of Peasant Studies |
| Volume | 49 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| Early online date | 29 Jun 2021 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:This research was supported by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF), under the Feminization, Agricultural Transition and Rural Employment FATE project (see http://www.fate.unibe.ch), within the r4d programme (project number 171191). We would like to thank the staff at the Alliance of Bioversity International and International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT) in Rwanda for facilitating and hosting our research in Rwanda. We would also like to express our greatest thanks to the invaluable research assistance and interpretation of Rénovat Muhire and Mukamana Theonille as well as to the enumerator team. Thanks also go to Yannik Friedli for significant support in transcribing the interviews. We are grateful to Prof. Catharine Newbury for providing substantial comments on an earlier draft. We would like to also acknowledge two anonymous reviewers for a close reading of the manuscript and their thoughtful suggestions for improvement. Finally, we sincerely thank all our research participants for offering their time and sharing their stories with us.
Publisher Copyright: © 2021 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
