'Touted as a new model for delivering agriculture aid to Africa, the ATDC is surrounded with much debate as with regards to the possibility of simultaneously delivering aid and achieving commercial goals.' - at webinar on Chinese investments in African agriculture
$153 billion lent by Chinese agencies to African countries. Now, Agriculture Technology Demonstration Centres play a growing role in Chinese influence on agricultural practices, says Dr George Mudimu @toveratm @TNInstitute
What are the implications of China's model of setting up agricultural technology demonstration centres in Africa, and training small-scale farmers? These have substantial reach, but local people have limited input into design, and there's no perceptible influence on food prices.
The popular narrative that Chinese have displaced African farmers is not born out from studies in Zimbabwe & Zambia, says Dr Mudimu. @toveratm
Africa is not as important to China as the sinophobic narrative suggests. Only 6% of China's trade is with Africa. The neo-imperialism argument suggests it is more significant. In agriculture at least, the influence is on production systems through technology transfer.
What's missing from Chinese agritech transfer in Africa is building local capacity to manufacture the technology like machinery, says Edmore Mwandiringana. But instead of land grabbing, much investment is in contract farming linking small-scale farmers into value chains.
Chinese experts in demonstration centres for African farmers often lack knowledge on local conditions. Like any top-down development intervention, the presumption is that external knowledge is what’s missing, says Dr Nkumbu Nalwimba from Zambia
The Chinese model promoted involves intensive farming practices suited to the Chinese context of land scarcity, but these are labour-demanding, and require machinery often not available - so many African farmers don’t adopt the practices the Chinese advocate. @nkumbu_nalwimba
Chinese agricultural demonstration centres form part of the 'soft' investment strategy to influence relations with African countries, says Dr Blessing Simura from Zimbabwe. One needs to understand this as part of an international relations and geopolitical strategy.
Elias Dafi, an econometrician, points out that the economic models promoted by the Chinese agritech demonstration centres often fall short because, while justified as promoting #foodsecurity, much of the contract farming is for cash crops, including for export.
What do Chinese govt & companies gain from providing agricultural technology demonstration centres in Africa? The panel now debates @PLAASuwc seminar. Among the answers: building clients for Chinese companies for input supply and technology, but also diplomatic leverage.
My question: What's the difference between relations between states, capital and citizens? Are we not seeing Chinese state institutions using ATDCs to create markets for Chinese private companies, using partnerships with African states to reach African citizens?
Are these models supporting capital accumulation among African farmers themselves, and local agricultural companies or competing with them? More debate on this, no doubt. Watch for the academic papers emerging from this study.
“Farmers and pastoralists at the grassroots level are keen to see an increase in investments in the agricultural sector, but they are not willing to give up their land to investors”.
This article addresses diverse responses to and local politics of contested commercialisation.
Social Differentiation and the Politics of Land: Sugar Cane Outgrowing in Kilombero, Tanzania, Journal of Southern African Studies, 43 (3): 517-533. Permanent link: tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Colonial conceptions of customary tenure continue to inform conceptions of the customary today. The "customary" is not fixed from some time immemorial; it has been reshaped for ideological & political purposes.
@UnivofGh@IASUG It's thrilling to get to know the land officials, activists, professionals and academics from across the continent.... The next generation of African land expertise.
The Political Economy of #LandGovernance in Africa short course - now online.
FREE ACCESS to articles on #COVID19 pandemic & post-pandemic futures in @Peasant_Journal - for the next few days only. Here's the list. Please share!
Agroecology and the reconstruction of a post-COVID-19 agriculture, by Miguel Altieri & Clara Nicholls tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
From biomedical to politico-economic crisis: the food system in times of Covid-19, by Jan Douwe van der Ploeg
- free to access for the next few days only @Peasant_Journal tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Most Indian farmers have less than 2 hectares! And depend on state-guaranteed prices for wheat & rice. This has been the foundation for smallholder agriculture for decades. It's this system which is under threat from new agricultural laws.
Restrictions on buying farmland by non-farmers and companies in Karnataka have been removed. These were meant to protect farming communities from dispossession by corporate interests. The squeeze on farmers means a crisis for rural people, says Joshi
At the JPS Writeshop in Critical Agrarian Studies:
How to build momentum in our field of critical agrarian studies? Martha Peediyakkan (India) says this process overcomes the isolation of agrarian scholars in general academic departments. #JPSwriteshop@Peasant_Journal
We are wrapping up the writeshop - originally designed as a one-week process to take place in Beijing, we converted it into 5 weeks online, spread over 4 months. Worked brilliantly! 62 PhD candidates from about 40 countries. #JPSwriteshop@Peasant_Journal@PLAASuwc
Schluwa Sama (Kurdistan/Iraq) says the #JPSwriteshop helps to confirm that there is space to combine academic scholarship with activism - and demystifies the world of publishing. @Peasant_Journal@PLAASuwc
We will share the map we created to show *which* land government is offering for redistribution. #landreform
It's clear: mostly marginal state farms already occupied by black farmers
Starts 1pm today - or watch after
This is land acquired by the SADT (South African Development Trust) mostly in 1970s for homeland consolidation - ie. adjacent - but never incorporated. So they are only outside the 'homelands' in the sense that they are registered as 'farms' on the cadastral system. #landreform
Siyabu Manona says the EFF tail is wagging the ANC dog..... This is not land redistribution: it's reallocating state land that is already held by black farmers on leasehold. Making available 896 farms and 700,000ha sounds impressive, but it's not white land. @ManonaSiyabu