Land, investments and public-private partnerships: what happened to the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor in Mozambique? (original) (raw)

Influential discourses present Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as essential for agricultural development in Africa; a parallel, critical debate on 'land rushes' has denounced Land Grabs, demanding increased accountability in FDIbased land deals. This article explores an initiative located in central Mozambique, the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor (BAGC). It shows how the international fertiliser company Yara set out to enrol actors at different levels in business, governance and agricultural development into BAGC as a public-private partnership to promote commercial agriculture. Very soon, * The initial fieldwork on which this article is based was funded by Norad, Norway. Many people have in different ways contributed to the development and encouraged the publication of this article. I wish to thank