"The peasant men and women who are members of the No to ProSavana Campaign maintain our opposition to this program and the way it has been imposed on us"
Campaign reiterates opposition to ProSavana in Mozambique
The No to ProSavana Campaign has learned, in the report from the latest meeting on ProSavana chaired by the Minister of Agriculture and Food Security on April 4, that the governments of Mozambique, Brazil and Japan are moving to implement the ProSavana program in northern Mozambique, ignoring broad opposition by peasants, Mozambican men and women and civil society organizations, whether members of not of the No to ProSavana Campaign. The report clearly states that “It is necessary to move forward. We will not all think alike. Some do not want to, but it is necessary to move forward.”
According to the program’s implementation schedule, ProSavana activities are already underway, although the No to ProSavana Campaign was not heard and everything that has been said about the program was ignored.
The peasant men and women who are members of the No to ProSavana Campaign maintain our opposition to this program and the way it has been imposed on us. We repeat that investments like ProSavana, the Nacala logistical corridor development program and the Sustenta program are not and will never be alternatives for agrarian development suited to the needs of Mozambican men and women, since they will never meet our food needs. The Campaign continues its defense of peasant and family agriculture, with agroecology as the only way for our country to achieve food sovereignty and keep family farmers from falling into the trap of corporations that want to control our food system.
Therefore, the Campaign will maintain its resistance against exclusionary and discriminatory development imposed by corporate agriculture, as a model based on the expansion and accumulation of capital by large investors, to produce profit rather than the well-being of peoples, as it should.
Even so, the No to ProSavana Campaign maintains its expectation for a truly open, democratic, inclusionary and constructive dialog with the government, to achieve solutions for our country’s agriculture that are sustainable, respond to the needs of Mozambican men and women and ensure their access, possession and control over land and other production factors, as a protected right.
The organisations:
Acção Académica para o Desenvolvimento das Comunidades Rurais – ADECRU (Academic Action for the Development of Rural Communities)
Comissão de Justiça e Paz da Arquidiocese de Nampula - CAJUPANA (Justice and Peace Commission of the Nampula Archdiocese)
Comissão Diocesana de Justiça e Paz de Nacala – CDJPN (Justice and Peace Commission of the Nacala Diocese)
Fórum Mulher – Coordenação para a Mulher no Desenvolvimento (Women’s Forum – Coordination for Women in Development)
Marcha Mundial das Mulheres Moçambique (World March of Women Mozambique)
Justiça Ambiental (JA!) – Amigos da Terra Moçambique (Environmental Justice [JA!] – Friends of the Earth Mozambique
Liga Moçambicana dos Direitos Humanos – LDH (Mozambican Human Rights League)
Livaningo
União Nacional de Camponeses – UNAC (National Peasants’ Union)
Maputo, Nampula, June 6, 2018.
