Land, investments and public-private partnerships: what happened to the Beira Agricultural Growth Corridor in Mozambique? (original) (raw)
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Waves and legacies: The making of an investment frontier in Niassa, Mozambique
To understand how land-use frontiers emerge, we studied the actors driving investments in Niassa province, Mozambique. Our ethnographic research over 2017-2018 among commercial agriculture and forestry investors shows that successive waves of actors with different backgrounds, motives and business practices, arrived in Niassa to establish farms or plantations yet repeatedly failed. Waves come and go but leave sediments – legacies – that add up to gradually build the conditions for a frontier to emerge. The accumulation of these legacies has given rise to a new wave by actors from within the region, indicating that over time endogenous processes may replace externally-driven waves.
2016
The impact of big agro-investors on food rights Case studies in Mozambique and Zambia We wish to thank the rural communities and individuals whose voices are documented here, and whose stories represent the primary source from which this book emerges. Thank you for your generosity and sharing your time and experiences. Our thanks also go to the traditional leaders, community leaders, political officers, government officials, NGOs and agri-business managers for their willingness to participate in the interviews and engage with us. We would like to acknowledge the valuable contribution of our respective organisations and their research teams, without whom the compilation of this book would not have been possible. Ruth Hall, Andries du Toit, Ben Cousins, Agostinho Bento, Jesinta Kunda and Nsama Nsemiwe provided significant input and leadership in the implementation of the overall project. We also wish to extend our sincere gratitude to the Open Society Foundation for its generous support for action research and for its role in this important work on unpacking and understanding the impacts of changing agro-food systems in Southern Africa. In particular, we'd like to thank Louise Olivier from the Open Society Foundation for her support throughout this project. Thanks to John Hall for drawing up our maps, and to Doret Ferreira and her team at Dotted Line Design.
Journal of Eastern African Studies
Since the triple crises of food, fuel and finance of 2007/8, investments in agricultural growth corridors have taken centrestage in government, donor and private sector initiatives. This article examines the politics of the multi-billion dollar development of the Southern Agricultural Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). The corridor's proponents aim to create an environment in which agribusiness will operate alongside smallholders to improve food security and environmental sustainability, while reducing rural poverty. Based on three case studies, comprising one of a small-scale dairy company and two large-scale sugar companies, all operating with smallholders, this paper interrogates the political dynamics that shape the implementation of SAGCOT on the ground; in particular, the multiple contestations among bureaucrats, investors and smallholders over access to land and other resources, and contending visions for agricultural commercialisation. Despite the widespread support it received from government, donors and investors, the paper argues that SAGCOT's grand modernist vision of the corridor, centred on the promotion of large-scale estates, has unravelled through contestations and negotiations on the ground.
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2012
Foreign agricultural investors are clashing with local peasants in Mozambique, in a confrontation over agricultural and development models. Foreign investors looking a apparently vacant land promise high (often inflated) profits to investors and local partners. Some hope to capitalise on carbon credits or produce biofuels, and claim to be green investments. All promise jobs, schools, and local development. Local backers support the outside investors and their plantations with terms like "progress" and "modernisation". The alternative is upgrading existing land holders to become small scale commercial farmers, potentially creating more jobs and moving faster to reduce poverty. Northern Zambézia province has seen two different choices. One large company withdrew rather than fight local peasants and take over land being used to grow food. But two other investors chose to push ahead, and have come into conflict with local peasant communities.