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Countless reports by global and African agencies highlight
the critical role for agriculture in African development. Almost all agree that
small farmers are key to addressing poverty and food insecurity. But many
policies lead in practice to empowerment of agribusiness giants rather than
small farmers. By imposing legal frameworks based on Western industrial
agriculture, powerful interests make a mockery of international pledges to help
small farmers.
Such a policy is described in a report from the Alliance for
Food Sovereignty in Africa and GRAIN:
"The G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition
was launched in 2012 by the eight most industrialised countries to mobilise
private capital for investment in African agriculture. To be accepted into the
programme, African governments are required to make important changes to their
land and seed policies. ... [for example] Despite the fact that more than 80%
of all seed in Africa is still produced and disseminated through 'informal'
seed systems (on-farm seed saving and unregulated distribution between
farmers), there is no recognition in the New Alliance programme of the
importance of farmer-based systems of saving, sharing, exchanging and selling
seeds."
The G8 New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition was
launched in 2012 by the eight most industrialised countries to mobilise private
capital for investment in African agriculture. To be accepted into the
programme, African governments are required to make important changes to their
land and seed policies. The New Alliance prioritises granting national and
transnational corporations (TNCs) new forms of access and control to the
participating countries' resources, and gives them a seat at the same table as
aid donors and recipient governments. As of July 2014, ten African countries
had signed Cooperative Framework Agreements (CFAs) to implement the New
Alliance programme. Under these agreements, these governments committed to 213
policy changes. Some 43 of these changes target land laws, with the overall
stated objective of establishing "clear, secure and negotiable rights to
land" -- tradeable property titles.
The New Alliance also aims to implement both the Voluntary
Guidelines (VGs) on Responsible Land Tenure adopted by the Committee on World
Food Security in 2012, and the Principles for Responsible Agriculture
Investment drawn up by the World Bank, FAO, IFAD and UN Conference on Trade and
Development. This is considered especially important since the New Alliance
directly facilitates access to farmland in Africa for investors. To achieve
this, the New Alliance Leadership Council, a self-appointed body composed of
public and private sector representatives, in September 2014 decided to come up
with a single set of guidelines to ensure that the land investments made
through the Alliance are "responsible" and not land grabs. As to
seeds, all of the participating states, with the exception of Benin, agreed to
adopt plant variety protection laws and rules for marketing seeds that better
support the private sector. Despite the fact that more than 80% of all seed in
Africa is still produced and disseminated through 'informal' seed systems
(on-farm seed saving and unregulated distribution between farmers), there is no
recognition in the New Alliance programme of the importance of farmer-based
systems of saving, sharing, exchanging and selling seeds. African governments
are being co-opted into reviewing their seed trade laws and supporting the
implementation of Plant Variety Protection (PVP) laws. The strategy is to first
harmonise seed trade laws such as border control measures, phytosanitary
control, variety release systems and certification standards at the regional
level, and then move on to harmonising PVP laws. The effect is to create larger
unified seed markets, in which the types of seeds on offer are restricted to
commercially protected varieties. The age old rights of farmers to replant
saved seed is curtailed and the marketing of traditional varieties of seed is
strictly prohibited. Concerns have been raised about how this agenda privatises
seeds and the potential impacts this could have on small-scale farmers. Farmers
will lose control of seeds regulated by a commercial system. There are also
serious concerns about the loss of biodiversity resulting from a focus on
commercial varieties.
The changes to seed policy being promoted by the G8 New
Alliance, the World Bank and others refer to neither farmer-based seed systems
nor farmers' rights. They make no effort to strengthen farming systems that are
already functioning. Rather, the proposed solutions are simplified, but
unworkable solutions to complex situations that will not work -- though an
elite category of farmers may enjoy some small short term benefits.With seeds,
which represent a rich cultural heritage of Africa's local communities, the
push to transform them into income-generating private property, and marginalise
traditional varieties, is still making more headway on paper than in practice.
This is due to many complexities, one of which is the growing awareness of and
popular resistance to the seed industry agenda. But the resolve of those who
intend to turn Africa into a new market for global agroinput suppliers is not
to be underestimated. The path chosen will have profound implications for the
capacity of African farmers to adapt to climate change. Subregional African
bodies -- SADC, COMESA, OAPI and the like -- are working to create new rules
for the exchange and trade of seeds. But the recipes they are applying -- seed
marketing restrictions and plant variety protection schemes -- are borrowed
directly from the US and Europe.
While there is a lot of attention focused on the G8's New
Alliance for Food and Nutrition, there are many more actors doing many similar
things across Africa. The greatest pressure to change land and seed laws comes
from Washington DC -- home to the World Bank, USAID and the MCC [Millennium
Challenge Corporation]. The World Bank is a significant player in catalysing
the growth and expansion of agribusiness in Africa. It does this by financing
policy changes and projects on the ground. In both cases, the Bank targets land
and seed laws as key tools for advancing and protecting the interests of the
corporate sector.
The Bank's work on policy aims at increasing agricultural
production and productivity through programmes called "Agriculture
Development Policy Operations" (AgDPOs).
Besides financing AgDPOs, the World Bank directly supports
agriculture development projects. Some major World Bank projects with land
tenure components are presented in Annex 2, with a focus on the legal
arrangements developed to make land available for corporate investors. These
projects are much more visible than the AgDPOs and their names are well known
in each country: PDIDAS in Senegal, GCAP in Ghana, Bagrépole in Burkina.
Most of the initiatives to change current land laws come
from outside Africa. Yes, African structures like the African Union and the
Pan-African Parliament are deeply engaged in facilitating changes to
legislation in African states, but many people question how
"indigenous" these processes really are. It is clear that strings are
being pulled, by Washington and Europe in particular, to alter land governance
in Africa.
There are a host of reports on specific cases of land grabs.
A battle is raging for control of resources in Africa -- land, water, seeds,
minerals, ores, forests, oil, renewable energy sources. Agriculture is one of
the most important theatres of this battle. Governments, corporations,
foundations and development agencies are pushing hard to commercialise and
industrialise African farming. Many of the key players are well known. They are
committed to helping agribusiness become the continent's primary food commodity
producer. To do this, they are not only pouring money into projects to
transform farming operations on the ground -- they are also changing African
laws to accommodate the agribusiness agenda.
Privatising both land and seeds is essential for the
corporate model to flourish in Africa. With regard to agricultural land, this
means pushing for the official demarcation, registration and titling of farms.
It also means making it possible for foreign investors to lease or own farmland
on a long-term basis. With regard to seeds, it means having governments require
that seeds be registered in an official catalogue in order to be traded. It
also means introducing intellectual property rights over plant varieties and
criminalising farmers who ignore them. In all cases, the goal is to turn what
has long been a commons into something that corporates can control and profit
from.
Land certificates -- which should be seen as a stepping
stone to formal land titles -- are being promoted as an appropriate way to
"securitise" poor peoples' rights to land. But how do we define the
term "land securitisation"? As the objective claimed by most of the
initiatives dealt with in this report, it could be understood as strengthening
land rights. Many small food producers might conclude that their historic
cultural rights to land -- however they may be expressed -- will be better
recognised, thus protecting them from expropriation. But for many governments
and corporations, it means the creation of Western-type land markets based on
formal instruments like titles and leases that can be traded. ... So in a world
of grossly unequal players, "security" is shorthand for market,
private property and the power of the highest bidder. Most of today's
initiatives to address land laws, including those emanating from Africa, are
overtly designed to accommodate, support and strengthen investments in land and
large-scale land deals, rather than achieve equity or to recognise longstanding
or historical community rights over land at a time of rising conflicts over
land and land resources.
Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa (AFSA) is a
pan-African platform comprising networks and farmer organisations championing
small African family farming based on agro-ecological and indigenous approaches
that sustain food sovereignty and the livelihoods of communities. GRAIN is a
small international organisation that aims to support small farmers and social
movements in their struggles for community-controlled and biodiversity-based
food systems.
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