Africa - Privatizing Land and 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. ... [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." - Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and GRAIN, January 2015

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, such as those described in this new report from the Alliance for Food Sovereignty in Africa and GRAIN, 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.

This AfricaFocus Bulletin contains excerpts from the report "Land and Seed Laws under Attack: Who is pushing changes in Africa?" (full report available at http://tinyurl.com/m5g8zje)

For summary talking points and previous AfricaFocus Bulletins on food and agriculture issues, visit http://www.africafocus.org/intro-ag.php

There are a host of reports on specific cases of land grabs and sometimes on successful challenges to them. The sources cited below are only a sampling.

For a report by Nigerian and international groups on a recent contested case of land grabbing in Taraba state in eastern Nigeria (a rice plantation under the control of U.S.-based agribusiness firm Dominion Farms), see http://tinyurl.com/pr463qr

For a recent case in Senegal, researched by ActionAid, visit http://tinyurl.com/mrhhuy4 For more information on ActionAid work on land rights, visit http://tinyurl.com/pdt7kny

For a case in Ghana, where Herakles Farms abandoned its investments after community protests, see the report by the Africa Faith and Justice Network (http://afjn.org; direct URL:http://tinyurl.com/mfftstg).

In addition to the organizations cited in this report, and the cases just cited, AfricaFocus particularly recommends, for case studies and current information on the status of land grabbing in Africa, the website of the Oakland Institute at http://www.oaklandinstitute.org/land-rights-issue The Oakland Institute and other groups are active in a campaign to have the World Bank stop promoting land grabs through its "doing business" ratings. Visit http://ourlandourbusiness.org/ for more details.

For extensive research on seeds and food sovereignty in Africa, see also the website of the African Centre for Biosafely (http://www.acbio.org.za/)

Ebola Perspectives

[AfricaFocus is regularly monitoring and posting links on Ebola on social media. For additional links, seehttp://www.facebook.com/AfricaFocus]

New and of particular interest:

Jina Moore, Buzzfeed, February 12 http://tinyurl.com/mjagccr map showing Liberia "very close" to end of Ebola. Total number of days since last case over 21 in all counties except Montserrado (Monrovia)

WHO, Situation Report, February 11 http://tinyurl.com/lygs4b5 Not quite as optimistic. "Total weekly case incidence increased for the second consecutive week, with 144 new confirmed cases reported in the week to 8 February." Cases up in Guinea and Sierra Leone, although still low in Liberia.

source:africa focus