3 Chichava IDSB44.4.qxd 18/06/2013 14:46 Page 101 Brazil and China in Mozambican Agriculture: Emerging Insights from View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE the Field provided by IDS OpenDocs Sérgio Chichava, Jimena Duran, Lídia Cabral, Alex Shankland, Lila Buckley, Tang Lixia and Zhang Yue Abstract Mozambique, a country undergoing rapid transformations driven by the recent discovery of mineral resources, is one of the top destinations for Chinese and Brazilian cooperation and investment in Africa. This article provides an account of the policies, narratives, operational modalities and underlying motivations of Brazilian and Chinese development cooperation in Mozambique. It is particularly interested in understanding how the engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular exchanges. The article draws on three cases (1) ProSavana, Brazil’s current flagship programme in Mozambique, which aims to transform the country’s savanna, spreading along the Nacala corridor, drawing on Brazil’s own experience in the Cerrado; (2) the Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC); and (3) a private Chinese rice investment project in the Xai-Xai irrigation scheme, which builds on a technical cooperation initiative. Commonalities and differences between the Brazilian and Chinese approaches are discussed. 1 Introduction Rosário (2012) emphasises instead the political Since Mozambique’s independence in 1975, motivations underlying agricultural governance, official policy discourse has unremittingly arguing that private interests and electoral represented agriculture as the backbone of the objectives have been key drivers of policy economy. The sector is the main source of decisions that have failed to produce livelihoods for about 80 per cent of the active developmental outcomes for the majority of the population and its contribution to Gross rural population. Despite some success stories, Domestic Product (GDP) (23 per cent in 2010) mostly in cash crop sectors (such as sugar, cashew remains significant (MINAG 2010a: 4), despite nuts, tobacco and horticulture), the dominant the rapid expansion of the mining and energy smallholder sector remains poor, vulnerable and sectors. Yet the country’s enormous agricultural dependent on subsidised inputs from the state. potential remains largely untapped. Of its 36 million hectares of arable land, distributed After the end of the civil war in 1992, across ten different agro-ecological zones, only Mozambique quickly become flooded with 10 per cent are farmed and only 50,000 hectares development assistance and eventually emerged, are currently irrigated, 60 per cent of which are towards the end of the 1990s, as one of Africa’s in sugar cane plantations (MINAG 2010a: 4). largest most aid-dependent countries. Agriculture has traditionally been one of the The devastating effects of civil war, the poor largest aid-receiving sectors and the sector was infrastructural base, low productivity levels, for several years supported by a pool-fund vulnerability to extreme weather events, limited mechanism aimed to build the institutional investment and weak institutional capacity are capacity of the agricultural ministry and improve amongst the factors frequently offered as aid coordination in a highly donor-populated explanations for disappointing performance. sector. Recently, donor coordination initiatives IDS Bulletin Volume 44 Number 4 July 2013 © 2013 The Authors. IDS Bulletin © 2013 Institute of Development Studies Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK and 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148, USA 101 3 Chichava IDSB44.4.qxd 18/06/2013 14:46 Page 102 have become somewhat discredited, due to Brazilian Cooperation Agency (ABC) of a failure to show tangible results on the ground, a Maputo-based coordinator post to oversee all less positive attitude towards foreign aid by the agriculture-related projects in the country, a current government leadership, and the pilot initiative for Brazilian cooperation more emergence of alternative development generally. Mozambique also hosts the largest cooperation partners, such as China and Brazil. number of researchers from the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (Embrapa) in The first two parts of the article describe the Africa and the corporation has also appointed a emerging engagements between Mozambique general coordinator based in the country to and Brazil and China in the agriculture sector. oversee Embrapa-led projects. Embrapa is hosted Next the article analyses policy discourses, by the Mozambican Institute for Agrarian imaginaries of agriculture and development and Research (IIAM), an institution under the the interests of actors and networks playing out Ministry of Agriculture (MINAG) and Brazil’s in such encounters. The article draws on main Mozambican counterpart for agriculture- empirical material collected through participant related projects. observation and key informant interviews undertaken between 2011 and 2012.1 A number of patterns are noticeable. First is the diversity of institutions involved. Unsurprisingly, 2 Brazil in Mozambique Embrapa is the dominant Brazilian cooperating Mozambique occupies a prominent position in institution, with several of its research units Africa–Brazil relations, which stems from a involved in project implementation. Others have combination of historical affinities, common recently joined the agricultural cooperation language, diplomatic bonds and, increasingly, domain, including government agencies, such as business opportunities (Cabral et al., this IDS the Ministry of Agrarian Development (MDA), Bulletin). It is the top beneficiary of Brazilian the Ministry of Social Development (MDS), and technical cooperation programmes in Africa the General Secretariat of the Presidency, as well (Cabral et al., this IDS Bulletin). At the end of as Brazilian social movements, such as the 2011, Brazil’s technical cooperation portfolio in Popular Peasant Movement and the Peasant Mozambique comprised 21 active projects, with Women’s Movement, each with different nine new projects in the process of negotiation.2 objectives and visions. Agriculture, education and health are the main areas of focus, taking the number of active Second is the move from one-off training projects as the measurement criteria (ABC 2010). initiatives towards programmes with a longer timeframe and a more systemic approach to Apart from technical cooperation, Mozambique capacity building, the so-called ‘structural is also an increasingly important destination for cooperation’ programmes. The largest of this Brazilian private capital, particularly in mining type at the moment in agriculture is ProSavana, and construction. Vale, the second largest mining a programme that has been subject to much company in the world, has a coal mining attention and controversy. concession at Moatize, Tete Province, and has recently been the focus of attention due to a Third is the transfer into Africa of Brazil’s own controversial population relocation away from agricultural policies, or elements of those policies. the mining site. Camargo Correa, Odebrecht ProSavana, More Food Africa and the Food and Andrade Gutierrez also have significant Acquisition programme are all examples of presences. Brazil’s National Economic and Social cooperation programmes aiming to reproduce Development Bank has been playing a central Brazil’s own policy experiments with agricultural role in expanding Brazilian businesses and development, for which claims of domestic success promoting Brazilian exports in Africa (CINDES have been made (Cabral et al., this IDS Bulletin). 2011). Trade between Brazil and Mozambique has, as a result, been displaying an increasingly Fourth is the establishment of triangular upward trend.3 cooperation arrangements, whereby Brazil partners with traditional donors in providing The importance of Mozambique for Brazilian cooperation to Mozambique. The Japanese cooperation is shown by the creation by the Development Cooperation Agency (JICA) and 102 Chichava et al. Brazil and China in Mozambican Agriculture: Emerging Insights from the Field 3 Chichava IDSB44.4.qxd 18/06/2013 14:46 Page 103 Figure 1 ProSavana in Mozambique Montepuez Lichinga Lilongwe Mandimba Cuamba Nacala Meconta Ribaue Monapo Mecanhelas Nampula Gurue Mumupula Alto Molocue Source Bias (2012). the United States Agency for International an example of ‘Brazil’s neo-colonialism in Africa’ Development (USAID) are thus far Brazil’s main (Rafael 2011) and of how Mozambique is set to trilateral cooperation partners for agricultural become ‘Brazil’s new agricultural frontier’ (Folha projects. The UN’s World Food Programme de São Paulo 2011). ProSavana is expected to (WFP) and Food and Agriculture Organization cover 14 million hectares of land along the (FAO) are also expected to be working with Nacala corridor, an area spreading across three Brazil in the multi-country Food Acquisition provinces of northern Mozambique (Niassa, programme. In addition to creating a platform Nampula and Zambézia), to reshape the region’s for synergies in technical expertise, trilateral economic landscape and transform it into a cooperation also allows Brazilian technical highly productive region addressing food security cooperation to be complemented by financial issues (Figure 1). cooperation provided by traditional donors. ProSavana is inspired by the