Accumulation and dispossession: cocoa production, rural development and the Structural Adjustment Programme in Southwest Nigeria, 1986 – 1996

The production and sales of cocoa were critical factors in rural development in colonial southwest Nigeria. Although abundant literature exists on the contributions of cocoa to economic development in southwest Nigeria, the impact of cocoa production on rural social relations, and community development in southwest Nigeria during the period of the structural adjustment programme is yet to be fully explored. This paper, therefore, examined the relationship between cocoa production and rural development in southwest Nigeria with a view to mapping out the transformation that occurred in the postcolonial rural social formations. The data comes from Idanre, the largest cocoa producing town in southwest, Nigeria. Primary and secondary sources were used. These included oral interviews, which were conducted with informants purposively selected due to their knowledge of cocoa production and community development in Idanre. Following economic liberalization and abolition of the Cocoa Marketing Board in 1986, Idanre witnessed urban-rural migration, as many indigenes and migrants outside the community returned to cocoa farming. These returnees competed for scarce resources with the local population and at the same time, facilitated the introduction of innovation, both capital investments, technological and modern socio-cultural traits. SAP also encouraged many non-cocoa producing families to invest in the cocoa business and they made a fortune through which they contributed to the transformation of both their livelihoods and the community. Keywords: Cocoa Production, Rural Development, Social Relations, Farm Settlement, Idanre, Southwest Nigeri