Foreign agricultural investments and human development in Africa

Résumé du document

In a time where feeding the world has become an urgent problem, highly populated countries 'delocalize' their food production in order to feed their populations. Africa is one of the most attractive targets, a phenomenon enhanced by the fact that African countries are thirsty for foreign investments representing considerable incomes. Paradoxical, one may think, as the African continent is among the geographical areas which suffer from low development and crisis-rated hunger issues.

Extraits

[...] That is one of the first limits to the mutual development process. And when they don't, the local farmers are not very protected, so to say. The investment contracts are often short and rather opaque, not committing the foreign investors extensively. Local farmers can easily be evicted and their cut access to fertile lands may aggravate hunger issues even further. It seems that the problem here is the following-up of the local populations' destiny. In order for this sort of globalized business to function, people's right to food and sustainable development must be respected. [...]

[...] As for India, the problem is not land itself but the poor level of irrigation. Foreign agricultural investments in Africa Agricultural investments in highly developed countries are something that has been neglected for quite some time now. Some improvement was seen during the Green Revolution in the 1960s but unfortunately it was short- lived. Only when the food prices reached a vertiginous peak in 2007-2008 did the world governments realize they were standing face to face with decades worth of neglect. [...]

[...] This has been called the neo-colonial pact or in particular the golden rush towards Africa. In a world where both resources and the financial market appear risky and where the global over-all insecurity seem palpable, the attraction of agricultural investments is more and more enhanced. Foreign agricultural investments, buying or renting land abroad for domestic use is not an exclusively African phenomenon. South-East Asia and Kazakhstan are attractive areas as well but Africa is somewhat especially concerned because of its fertile soil and the countries' own poor capacity of investment. [...]

[...] In theory, everyone seems to benefit from it. Countries who cannot feed their people by themselves invest in countries that don't have enough resources to exploit their land. As globalization first and foremost, at least at an early stage, is about economic profit, one may wonder what consequences this business will have on the environment and human development in Africa before it is regularized. COPINSCHI, Philippe, DURAND, Marie-Françoise, MARTIN, Benoît, PLACIDI, Delphine, Atlas de la mondialisation. Comprendre l'espace mondial contemporain, Les Presses de Sciences Po, Paris DURAND, Olivier, ROUSSEAU, Jean-François, Une seule terre à cultiver. [...]

[...] As it was said earlier on, the often fuzzy contracts do not commit the investors even when it comes to sustainable development and careful handling of natural resources. China, for instance, is sowing crops that do not necessarily the local soil, putting the ecological balance at risk. Moreover, “unnatural” sowing may need excessive amounts of water, which is a true ecological danger. Also, when it comes to water, the international competition for cultivable land disguises a greater international competition: the competition for the global water resources. To conclude, this essay's stand is rather skeptical towards the foreign investment rush in Africa. [...]