Ethiopian Journal

On 25 April 2010, representatives from a host of organisations and nations with the clout to shape policies and millions of lives around the world gathered for a Roundtable at the headquarters of the US Millennium Challenge Corporation in Washington. 

Among them were representatives from the World Bank Group, Japan, the US, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), African governments and the African Union Commission. Their stated aim was to 'facilitate a dialogue among government representatives, multilateral agencies, civil society, and the private sector to further explore progress and advancement of ongoing work related to principles for responsible agricultural investment.'[1]

Others prefer simpler language. They describe the form of agricultural investment under discussion at the Roundtable, which involves large-scale land acquisition for industrial-style agriculture in African and other developing countries, as a global 'land grab'. They say there is no way it can be 'responsible' because it threatens food, seed and land sovereignty of family farmers, social stability, environmental health and biodiversity around the world.[2]

According to Devlin Kuyek of GRAIN, the international NGO that has been drawing the world's attention to the land-grab issue, the Roundtable was 'a smoke and mirrors show to dampen the escalating social backlash threatening land grab investors.' He was one of the activists who travelled to Washington to protest in front of the Roundtable venue in Washington. Well over 100 farmer, civil society and non-governmental organisations and broad-based coalitions around the world have signed onto the campaign, 'Stop land grabbing now!'.[3]

The investors and the proponents of this kind of agricultural investment in Africa deny it is a land grab.[4] They say that the investments are positive, providing jobs and infrastructure, posing no threat to food security even if the food and agrofuels they produce are for export. Such a stance is understandable; it would be unrealistic to expect an objective assessment of such foreign direct investment from the nations, corporations, investment banks and funds, and billionaire tycoons that stand to profit from it.

What is perplexing, however, is that the same kind of rhetoric is coming from some whose job it is to protect Africa's farmers' rights and their farmland from exploitative foreign takeover. By this, I mean African heads of state and other elected representatives of the people, as well as some holding key positions in Africa's regional economic and political bodies.

Take, for example, the views of Sindiso Ngwenya, secretary general of Comesa, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa. He calls the agricultural investment in the region, particularly by Gulf States, a 'win-win' partnership.[5] Egypt's minister of investment, Mahmoud Mohieddin, says that if foreign investors exploit an African country, it's the fault of the country itself because individual countries have the obligation to protect themselves. In the words of Minister Mohieddin, 'If your country doesn't provide this kind of policy priority in its investment policy, don't blame those who are coming to exploit and extract. The issue of responsible investment lies with the government and all of these things should be established.'[6]

The question is: Are African governments being responsible and putting protection of their own people ahead of, or at least on par with protection for the investors? Listening to some African leaders, it doesn't look that way.[7] Some defend the investors' acquisition of land in their countries, saying it is 'virgin' or 'under-utilised' or 'uncultivated' or 'degraded' land and they applaud the 'modernisation' of agriculture with agribusiness that is heavy on the use of imported seed and environmentally destructive machinery, chemicals and irrigation. This suggests they know precious little about the importance of fallows and the resilience and diversity of agroforestry systems, or about sustainable agriculture and the knowledge base of their own farmers in using soil, tree, water and genetic resources wisely and productively, particularly in the face of climate change. It certainly shows they have not read or understood the world's most comprehensive study of agriculture, the International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD). It was done by 400 scientists over many years and it showed that agro-ecological farming is the best - the only - sustainable approach to land use.[8] So did the recent study by the United Nations Environment Program on the appropriate response to the food crisis and to climate change.[9]

Even less comprehensible is that some African leaders seem to be prostrating themselves at the feet of the investors, competing to outdo each other to court them with generous tax holidays and concessions. Such giveaways cast doubts on how cash-strapped African governments will benefit at all from such investments.

So the next question is: Why are Africa's leaders so eager to sell out their own farmers by leasing their precious land (water, soils and other natural resources) to foreign interests? Is it just because of their own lack of understanding of the value of agro-ecological agriculture and environmental sustainability? Or are they also being influenced by imported ideology and neo-liberal ideologues from major international financial institutions? It appears the answer is both of the above.