Mega Agrobusiness Fuels Growing Resentment in Mozambique

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Mega agrobusiness fuels growing resentment in Who's involved? Mozambique Select Category Published: 07 Dec 2015 Short URL: http://farmlandgrab.org/25573 Posted in: Brazil | Japan | Mozambique | Portugal | ProSavana

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Government agency strips Karuturi’s land privilege Mutuali (Mozambique) (AFP) - Immense reserves of gas and coal in northern Mozambique have 04 Jan 2016 | No Comments attracted foreign investors in recent years, but so has its fertile soil, much to the concern of small Rapport du Forum f oncier mondial farmers displaced by agricultural mega-projects. : Moustapha Sourang propose une

démarche participative et For the purchase of her house and two hectares (ﬁve acres) of ﬁelds, Regina Macomba, a farmer in inclusive pour la réf orme f oncière her 50s, received 6,500 meticals. That is the equivalent of 130 euros ($140) or two months of the 29 Dec 2015 | No Comments minimum wage. Accaparements de terres : Le But she did not have a choice about whether to sell. monde paysan s’active pour la sécurisation f oncière Agromoz, a joint venture between the Amorim Group owned by Portugal's wealthiest family and 29 Dec 2015 | No Comments Intelec, a company owned by former Mozambican president Armando Guebuza (2005-2015), had more obtained a government concession in 2012 to farm soybeans on 10,000 hectares in the remote area near the border with Malawi. Languages Hundreds of others have also been evicted since 2013 to make way for the mega farm that will produce the soybeans for feed for chickens. Amharic Bahasa Indonesia Català Catala Dansk "Three days after receiving my indemnity payment, the bulldozers arrived to destroy our homes and Deutsch English Español we had to carry our belongings and food away on our heads as the sun came up," recalled Macomba, français Italiano Kurdish now resettled in Mutuali. Malagasy Nederlands Português Suomi اﻟﻌﺮﺑﻲ Nearby stands the wood frame of what will eventually become the house of Arnaldo Francisco, 26, Svenska Türkçe who was also evicted in 2013 but has yet to put a new roof over his head.

"I've had to tend my crops ﬁrst," he said as he pulled seeds out of piri piri peppers, which are a mainstay of Mozambican cuisine. Special content Neither Macomba nor Francisco know how to read and neither speak Portuguese, the national language in Mozambique. audio contracts oﬀ-topic video water View galleryContractors work in Mutuali, northern Mozambique, on … wikileaks women Contractors work in Mutuali, northern Mozambique, on building the 912km railway line linking Vale … They signed the detailed documents explaining their compensation for damages plus interest despite not understanding them. Archives

Agromoz said it acted in accordance with the law and conducted the entire process in full Select month transparency.

"It wasn't the company that ﬁxed the level of compensation, but the Mozambican government which determined what should be paid to each family," said Agromoz's chief executive, Andre Luft.

Nevertheless he acknowledged the swift eviction of the farmers tarnished the company's public image.

- 'Explosive situation' -

Agromoz justiﬁed its action because the project was behind schedule due to community consultations. And with it currently exploiting only a ﬁfth of the concession, other small farmers still face the threat of eviction.

"The Agromoz situation is explosive, nobody knows what could happen," said Antonio Muagerene, head of the PPOSC umbrella group uniting local civic groups.

He placed the blame for the current tensions on the government, which he said failed in its role as a mediator.

Non-governmental organisations are concerned that the Agromoz scenario will be repeated on a much larger scale.

The Prosavana project, which emerged from a 2009 cooperation pact with Brazil and Japan, concerns 10 million hectares or just over a quarter of Mozambique's arable land.

The first draft of the project released in 2013, which called for adopting industrial farming practices used in Brazil to boost soybean export capacity when five million Mozambicans suffer from chronic food insecurity, sparked an outcry among farmers' associations.

Earlier this year the government presented a second draft of the project which took into account many of the concerns voiced by small farmers.

Work was continuing to incorporate the views of civic groups to the second draft, according to Prosavana's coordinator, Antonio Limbau.

But Manuel Pedro Massava, a representative of Mutuali's farmers, was sceptical.

"Agromoz was a lesson for us. We saw how people were treated and the same thing will happen with Prosavana," he warned.

Source: AFP