A Million Hectares More: Agro-Capitalism's solution to climate change in Chile

Abstract

For the past 30 years, Chilean fruit agribusiness has been a veritable economic success story. Whilst in 1975, fruit production used a mere 89.000 hectares, today, this export- based business has transformed the face of the Chilean rural landscape with more than 350.000 hectares of fruit farms. However, over the past 14 years, this industry has been smitten by a "Megadrought", one of the longest in Chile's recorded history. In an effort to sustain and expand fruit production, different solutions have been proposed and debated by stakeholders. The most ambitious of these "fixes" is called the "Hydric Highway" (Carretera Hídrica). This water transfer mega project would have brought water from the south of Chile to the north to alleviate "water scarcity" in the central valleys and create a million additional hectares of irrigated farmland. Relying on my findings from 35 in-depth interviews with key informants, I will discuss the views and opinions expressed by medium and large fruit producers, exporters, and water user associations regarding the different proposals to solve "water scarcity", particularly the building of this " Hydric Highway". I will address how -in this context- the endeavours to create "socioecological fixes" are best understood as contingent open- ended processes of social and inter-capitalist struggle.

Date of Award	6 Jan 2025
Original language	English
Awarding Institution	The University of Manchester
Supervisor	Noel Castree (Supervisor), Erik Swyngedouw (Supervisor) & Joe Blakey (Supervisor)