Brics and Mics ― Implications for Global Agrarian Transformation

The economic and political rise of the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa), and powerful middle-income countries (MICs) such as Argentina, Indonesia, and Turkey, has far-reaching implications for global agrarian transformation. These countries are key sites of agricultural commodity production, distribution, circulation and consumption and are contributing to major shifts in the character of agro-food systems.

This comprehensive collection explores these issues through the lens of critical agrarian studies, which examines fundamental social change in, and in relation to, rural worlds. The authors explore key themes such as the processes of agrarian change associated with individual countries within the grouping; the role and impacts of BRICS countries within their respective regions; the role of other middle-income countries within these regions; and the rising importance of MICs within global and regional agro-food systems. The book encompasses a wide variety of case studies, including: the expansion of South African agrarian capital within Africa; Brazil as a regional agro-food power and its complex relationship with China, which has been investing heavily in Brazil; the role of BRICS and MICs in Bolivia’s soy complex; crop booms within China; China’s role in land deals in Southeast Asia; and Vietnamese investment in Cambodia.

This book will be of interest to students and researchers of critical agrarian studies, with a focus on BRICS and MICs. It was originally published as a special issue of the journal Globalizations.

Ben Cousins holds a DST/NRF Research Chair at the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa.

Saturnino M. Borras, Jr. is Professor of Agrarian Studies at the International Institute of Social Studies, The Hague, the Netherlands; Adjunct Professor in the College of Humanities and Development Studies (COHD) at China Agricultural University (CAU), Beijing, PR China; and a Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Sergio Sauer is Professor for the Post Graduate Program for Environment and Rural Development in the Centre for Sustainable Development at the University of Brasilia, Brazil. He has a research scholarship from CNPq, Brasilia, Brazil.

Jingzhong Ye is Professor and Dean of the COHD at CAU, Beijing, PR China.