Agro-investment in Africa: impact on land and livelihoods in Mozambique and Tanzania

The purpose of the study is to assess different approaches to agro-investment in Mozambique and Tanzania in order to learn lessons on how agro-investment might impact on land and livelihoods there.

Concerning Mozambique, the report emphasises that regional history points towards legacies that need to be overcome if a neo-liberal political framework is to be in favour of agricultural development. Furthermore, the paper recommends the following:

• creating a local think-tank forum for commercial agriculture within the platform of current initiative on agricultural growth
• members of the forum should not only represent commercial farmers but also civil society organisations and local farmers’ representatives
• the think-tank forum should be supported and followed up through a donor-funded process-research project
• allocating new resources to work with the formalisation of local people’s land rights can be considered if less-than-expected land is actually available for commercial-agriculture investments
• the choice and implementation of linkages between commercial-farming units and local smallholders are supposed to be flexible and adaptable.
  

Regarding Tanzania, the report finds that if the aim is to reduce rural poverty and improve smallholders’ livelihoods, special measures need to be in place to ensure a pro-poor approach. Additionally, the authors conclude that:

• it is important to include job creation as an element in the agricultural growth initiative
• the agricultural policy in Tanzania needs to change such that it establishes better incentives for farmers to produce
• Tanzania should not be closed for agro-investors involving semi-large land acquisition
• land acquisition as agro-investment should only take place on certain strict conditions that preserve the rights of local people and ensure good implementation.