1503-1502 Land and Seed Laws Under Attack



The scramble and partition of Africa is not an event that took place in the history of economic relations between Europe and Africa; it is in fact the underlying characteristic.  Though the name has changed to development cooperation and the modus operandi has become more scientific and subtle, the negative impacts on Africa are on the increase. 


At the Brussels Development Briefing of February 18, 2015, the representative of DEVCO stated unequivocally that agriculture is the focus of development cooperation between the EU and the ACP countries. At surface level, this sounds plausible but at the deeper and more practical level, it might be helpful to ask what kind of agriculture is being proposed in the so-called development cooperation.  Is it an agriculture that will provide food for the African people and improve the standard of living of African rural dwellers or an agriculture that will provide more and easy source of raw materials for European agro-fuels? Is it a cooperation that would be respectful of the environment of Africa and build the capacity of smallholder farmers or is it a cooperation that seeks to replace African small- holder farmers with European Agro business corporations? 


The major actors in the development cooperation are in a desperate move to change the African Land and Seed laws. What is behind the desperation? Whose interests are being served in those changes? Is it the interest of the majority of African people or is the interests of the political class and Agro-business corporations? What are the socio-economic consequences for Africa?


AFSA (Alliance for Food Sovereignty is Africa) and GRAIN recently published a painstaking, must- read report that exposes the activities of the different actors in their respective development cooperation. The common denominator among them is the tacit effort that aims at making Africa the destination for easy source of raw materials for European Agro business corporations.


Source: GRAIN

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