Joseph Hanlon | 14 December 2012
Land conflicts in Tete and Gaza
...There have been two recent protests about people being threatened with eviction for large farms being set up for foreign investors.
The Chinese company Wanbao on 11 December signed an agreement with the state company Regadio do Baixo Limpopo (RBL, Lower Limpopo Irrigation) for 20,000 ha for rice and other crops. The agreement was signed in the presence of Agriculture Vice Minister António Limbau and Gaza Governor Raimundo Diomba. The company says it will invest $250 million to develop irrigation and will do contract farming with up to 6000 farmers in the area. (Noticias 12 Dec 12)
Anastácio Matavel of the local NGO FONGA (Fórum de Organizações Nacionais de Gaza) claims that 80,000 people will be thrown off the land by Wanbao. (Canal de Moçambique, 25 Oct 2012) President Guebuza visited the project on 10 November and said that all the people living in the area have been told that all their interests will be safeguarded and they will be relocated into area with infrastructure and jobs. (Notiicas 12 Nov 2012)
The project apparently grows out of a 2005 cooperation agreement between Gaza province and Hubei province in China to improve rice production. For three years (2008–2011), the project was partly financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and served as a test site for the Gates Foundation’s "Green Super Rice" programme. Hubei is also involved in the Mozambican agricultural research centre in Boane, near Maputo. (Brautigam & Ekman, African Affairs, 111/444, 483–492)
And on 25 October the National Peasants Union UNAC (União Nacional de Camponeses) issued a statement criticising the Brazilian-Japanese ProSavana project in the Nacala Corridor. The statement sasy: "The project was inspired by an earlier agricultural development project implemented by the Brazilian and Japanese governments in the Brazilian Cerrado (savannah), where large-scale industrial farming of monocrops (mainly soybeans) is now practiced. This Brazilian project led to a degradation of the environment and the near extinction of indigenous communities living in the affected areas. The Nacala Corridor was chosen because its savannah has similar characteristics to the Brazilian Cerrado, in terms of its climate and agroecology, and because of the ease with which products can be exported." They complain that the project is being done in secret, and conclude: "We condemn the arrival of masses of Brazilian farmers seeking to establish agribusinesses that will transform Mozambican peasant farmers into their employees and rural labourers. We are extremely concerned that ProSavana requires millions of hectares of land along the Nacala Corridor, when the local reality shows that such vast areas of land are not available and are currently used by peasants practicing shifting cultivation."
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/agrarian-reform-mainmenu-36
The Brazilian newspaper Brasil de Fato (29 Nov 2012) quotes Charles Hefner of GV Agro, a subsidiary of Brazil's Fundação Getulio Vargas. as dismissing the idea that the project will displace Mozambican peasants. He says ProSavana is targeting "abandoned areas" where "there is no agriculture being practiced". "Mozambique has a tremendous area available for agriculture," says Hefner. "There is room for mega projects of 30-40,000 ha without major social impacts."
In practice, although there have been no official statements, ProSavana is having significant problems finding large tracts of land. All of the good land in the Nacala corridor already belongs to someone. Peasants are under some informal pressure to move (which partly triggered the UNAC statement) but ProSavana is reportedly rethinking its approach, moving away from very large farms.
Land conflicts in Tete and Gaza
...There have been two recent protests about people being threatened with eviction for large farms being set up for foreign investors.
The Chinese company Wanbao on 11 December signed an agreement with the state company Regadio do Baixo Limpopo (RBL, Lower Limpopo Irrigation) for 20,000 ha for rice and other crops. The agreement was signed in the presence of Agriculture Vice Minister António Limbau and Gaza Governor Raimundo Diomba. The company says it will invest $250 million to develop irrigation and will do contract farming with up to 6000 farmers in the area. (Noticias 12 Dec 12)
Anastácio Matavel of the local NGO FONGA (Fórum de Organizações Nacionais de Gaza) claims that 80,000 people will be thrown off the land by Wanbao. (Canal de Moçambique, 25 Oct 2012) President Guebuza visited the project on 10 November and said that all the people living in the area have been told that all their interests will be safeguarded and they will be relocated into area with infrastructure and jobs. (Notiicas 12 Nov 2012)
The project apparently grows out of a 2005 cooperation agreement between Gaza province and Hubei province in China to improve rice production. For three years (2008–2011), the project was partly financed by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and served as a test site for the Gates Foundation’s "Green Super Rice" programme. Hubei is also involved in the Mozambican agricultural research centre in Boane, near Maputo. (Brautigam & Ekman, African Affairs, 111/444, 483–492)
And on 25 October the National Peasants Union UNAC (União Nacional de Camponeses) issued a statement criticising the Brazilian-Japanese ProSavana project in the Nacala Corridor. The statement sasy: "The project was inspired by an earlier agricultural development project implemented by the Brazilian and Japanese governments in the Brazilian Cerrado (savannah), where large-scale industrial farming of monocrops (mainly soybeans) is now practiced. This Brazilian project led to a degradation of the environment and the near extinction of indigenous communities living in the affected areas. The Nacala Corridor was chosen because its savannah has similar characteristics to the Brazilian Cerrado, in terms of its climate and agroecology, and because of the ease with which products can be exported." They complain that the project is being done in secret, and conclude: "We condemn the arrival of masses of Brazilian farmers seeking to establish agribusinesses that will transform Mozambican peasant farmers into their employees and rural labourers. We are extremely concerned that ProSavana requires millions of hectares of land along the Nacala Corridor, when the local reality shows that such vast areas of land are not available and are currently used by peasants practicing shifting cultivation."
http://viacampesina.org/en/index.php/main-issues-mainmenu-27/agrarian-reform-mainmenu-36
The Brazilian newspaper Brasil de Fato (29 Nov 2012) quotes Charles Hefner of GV Agro, a subsidiary of Brazil's Fundação Getulio Vargas. as dismissing the idea that the project will displace Mozambican peasants. He says ProSavana is targeting "abandoned areas" where "there is no agriculture being practiced". "Mozambique has a tremendous area available for agriculture," says Hefner. "There is room for mega projects of 30-40,000 ha without major social impacts."
In practice, although there have been no official statements, ProSavana is having significant problems finding large tracts of land. All of the good land in the Nacala corridor already belongs to someone. Peasants are under some informal pressure to move (which partly triggered the UNAC statement) but ProSavana is reportedly rethinking its approach, moving away from very large farms.
