Why Africa’s New Green Revolution is failing – Maize as a commodity and anti-commodity in South Africa

The South African Government has for the past two decades spent significant resources on introducing smallholders to Genetically Modified (GM) maize with aim make agriculture a way out of poverty. However smallholder farming continues decline and poverty is rise in country. present paper aims explain this failure government support its by describing intra-actions between maize, politics technological development history. Importantly understood here as an agent that materialities are not only being impacted by, but also having impact outcome practices wider political economies. describes how result intra-action biology choices made farmers, politicians breeders during colonial era apartheid, developed parallel commodity serving settler anti-commodity, or escape crop, providing subsistence marginalised smallholders. While Africa today democracy spends improving livelihoods, recent market concentration have increased rather than decreased gap commodity- anti-commodity maize. As new GM hybrid varieties introduced badly equipped facilitate crop led New Green Revolution.