ABSTRACT
This chapter outlines the ways in which primary economic sectors of agriculture and natural resources are foundational to economic development. We discuss how the development of primary economic activities is a precursor to the development of the nation-state and follows from the imperial and colonial acquisition of territory and resources. Raced, classed and gendered subjects, such as farmers and laborers, are exploited by the nation-states and the private sector to accumulate capital, often through dispossession. This operates through a variety of mechanisms, including agrarian reform, technology transfer and public–private partnerships, often euphemistically referred to as “development.” We use empirical examples from the United States to demonstrate the gendering of agricultural development and Congo to illustrate gendered resource extraction.
