Reframing the New Alliance agenda: A critical assessment based on insights from Tanzania
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Date
2013
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS)
Abstract
A dedicated investment in smallholder farmers to enable them to improve their land use and productivity is critical to achieve sustainable and inclusive growth in African countries. The New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition (‘New Alliance’) focuses on public-private
partnership (PPPs) with local investors and multinational corporations (MNCs) to produce food. However, this is unlikely to solve chronic problems of hunger, malnutrition and poverty because of under-investment in smallholder agriculture, and the rolling back of state support following structural adjustment programmes from the 1980s onwards. The initial signs of New Alliance implementation, instead of reversing this chronic under-investment in smallholder agriculture, suggests the adoption of corporate agriculture, either turning smallholder farmers into wage workers and hooking them into value chains in which they have to compete with MNCs, or expelling them to search for alternative livelihoods in the growing cities. Although tempered by promotion of ‘outgrower’ schemes, in practice this agenda promotes large-scale commercialisation. We argue that African countries engaging with the New Alliance should focus instead on securing citizens’ access to land, water and improved governance. African countries have a better chance of addressing the root causes behind rural poverty and low agricultural productivity by investing directly in smallholder farmers themselves.
Description
Keywords
New Alliance, Tanzania, Public-private partnership (PPPs), Multinational corporations (MNCs), Smallholder agriculture
Citation
Sulle, E. & Hall, R., 2013. Reframing the New Alliance Agenda: A Critical Assessment based on Insights from Tanzania. Cape Town: Institute for Poverty Land and Agrarian Studies (PLAAS).