"Industrial Agriculture By Smallholders" As an Alternative to Agroecology?

Agroecology has been proposed as a more sustainable and equitable alternative to industrial agriculture and a feasible strategy for Global South countries to achieve both food sovereignty and national development. This paper challenges these claims. Theoretically, it identifies two deficiencies in the agroecology agenda: first, it does not adequately address the urgent needs of industrializing nations in the Global South to produce agricultural surplus and generate capital accumulation; and second, it conceptualizes industrial agriculture as a binary opposite to agroecology and overlooks the diversity within industrial agriculture, thereby missing its potential benefits for industrializing countries. Empirically, this paper uses China’s experience of agrarian transition in the past 70 years, which has created a model that I call “industrial agriculture by smallholders”, to show that this alternative model is far more effective in providing food security for a growing non-farm population, allowing for capital accumulation, and preparing the conditions for industrialization and sustained economic growth. The “industrial agriculture by smallholders” in China was made possible by continuous efforts by the state – albeit it with fluctuations and variations over time – in disseminating technologies, improving infrastructure, developing markets, and safeguarding land rights. The paper also compares China’s experiences with those of other cases in the Global South to illustrate how these key factors contributed to China’s success.