The food crisis of 2007/8, alongside rapid population growth, and the uncertainties of climate change propelled African agricultural transformation back into the development mainstream. New narratives of ‘climate-smart agriculture’ and ‘sustainable intensification’ underlie this contemporary transformation. We present a political economy analysis of agricultural policy and livelihoods in Malawi, Tanzania and Zambia, and use this to assess the challenge of achieving ‘sustainable and inclusive intensification’. We find little evidence that agricultural institutions have the capacity to deliver sustainable intensification in agriculture, or that agricultural policy drives changes in agricultural livelihoods that will make them either more sustainable or inclusive.

Large‐scale land acquisitions (LaSLAs) have been a common feature of neoliberal transformation in which state entities facilitate foreign investments; yet the related governance dynamics remain poorly understood. This paper combines policy analysis and interview data to investigate governance dynamics of LaSLAs and analyses competing authority and power relations among national actors mediating land access for the case of Zambia. Our findings show that corporate interests, donor and regional support drive LaSLAs, but national factors predominate. While possibilities for LaSLAs are created by state institutions, the state agencies seeking to administer land‐based resources also limit their potential through competing authority and agendas. The demand for land and water, accompanied by government and donor resources, heightens tensions among state entities over decision‐making and creation of new frontiers of resource control. By focusing on state and non‐state actors and their articulation in LaSLAs, our study shows that the top‐down nature of governance of land, labour and water resources is problematic for long‐term sustainable agriculture and rural development. The paper highlights the importance of state entities and their control, legal extensions and governance practices in relation to local subjects in delivering LaSLAs and facilitating the emergence of a more locally rooted agro‐vision for agriculture for sustainable and socially just rural development.