Regulating the Peasantry:

The role of the State in the economy and society world wide, has become a subject of intense debate. Yet the historical basis for such public policies or state actions in Africa is far from being clearly understood or comprehensively theorized. This book identifies and explains the political, social, economic and historical forces that underlie such state policies in the Agricultural Sector of one major African country, Nigeria. It also examines the impacts of these public policies on different social classes and groups, especially the peasantry. The book reveals that the various social classes and groups contested every step of the agrarian policies, right from the agenda setting to actual implementation. Consequently, the resultant struggles affected drastically the state policies and outcomes in such a way that the original goals were lost. It further goes beyond these decades of regulating the peasantry, to examine the larger implications for internal security, peace, poverty eradication, sustainable development and inclusive growth in contemporary Nigeria.