Smallholder views on Chinese agricultural investments in Mozambique and Tanzania in the context of VGGTS
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Date
2023
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
MDPI
Abstract
Based on a case study in each country, this study documents the views of Mozambican and Tanzanian smallholders regarding Chinese agricultural investments and the extent to which investors abide by their legitimate land tenure rights as defined by the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Forests and Fisheries in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs). The VGGTs offer guidelines to government on how to protect the land tenure of rural communities when land is being acquired for large-scale land investments. The study also assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smallholders. Due to COVID-19, instead of fieldwork, we conducted telephone interviews with 20 smallholders in Mozambique and 35 in Tanzania. The Mozambican case showed that even when land set aside for investors was not in dispute, smallholders still had
unmet expectations, especially regarding investors’ corporate social responsibility activities. In the Tanzanian case, even though the land leased by the Chinese investor had been designated as general land, it had laid fallow for a long period, and smallholders had moved back onto the land, only to be
displaced in 2017.
Description
Keywords
Agriculture, Land tenure, Investment, Mozambique, Farming
Citation
Pointer, R. et al. (2023). Smallholder views on Chinese agricultural investments in Mozambique and Tanzania in the context of VGGTS. Sustainability, 15(2), 1220. https://doi.org/10.3390/su15021220