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Field-leading experts Andrew Bowman, Hazel Gray, and Reena Das Nair offer an empirically rich, theoretically sophisticated, open access political-economic analysis of how states across Africa are responding to rapidly industrializing food systems while balancing job creation, economic inclusion, nutrition, climate change, and environmental sustainability priorities.

Drawing on over 200 in-depth interviews with firm owners in South Africa and Tanzania, the authors provide narrative insights into firm histories, value chain relations, and policy contestations, bringing theoretical debates to life through the stories of firm owners and their struggles to survive and thrive. What emerges is a much-needed insight into the into policy effectiveness in the mid-section of food value chains, where the state can promote capability-upgrading in small firms in order to deliver on their multiple, overlapping, and sometimes competing policy priorities around justice and sustainability. At the same time, the book's findings counter universalizing narratives about economic development in Africa by highlighting the very different development trajectories different states are taking in response to the ever-increasing demand for processed food. All of this appears in sharp relief through the theoretically innovative lens that eschews macroeconomic analysis in order to emphasize the political economy drivers of demand and consumption.

The ebook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by UKRI.