The politics of agrofuels and mega-land and water deals: insights from the ProCana case, Mozambique

This paper examines the politics of large-scale commercial biofuels production and mega-land–water deals, with special reference to the dynamics of changes in land/water use and property rights and how these impact on the lives and livelihoods of the socio-economically marginalised rural sectors in the countryside. The main argument is that the assumption about existing, available marginal lands is fundamentally flawed. It is demonstrated by examining the ProCana sugar cane ethanol plantation in Gaza province in Mozambique.

[1]  Olivier De Schutter,et al.  How not to think of land-grabbing: three critiques of large-scale investments in farmland , 2011 .

[2]  J. H. Christie,et al.  Mozambique and the Great Flood of 2000 , 2001 .

[3]  Klaus Deininger,et al.  Challenges posed by the new wave of farmland investment , 2011 .

[4]  C. Hunsberger,et al.  The politics of Jatropha-based biofuels in Kenya: convergence and divergence among NGOs, donors, government officials and farmers , 2010 .

[5]  Les Levidow,et al.  Assumptions in the European Union biofuels policy: frictions with experiences in Germany, Brazil and Mozambique , 2010, The Journal of peasant studies.

[6]  M. Tiffen.  Living Under Contract: Contract farming and agrarian transformation in sub-Saharan Africa , 1995 .

[7]  C. Cramer,et al.  Rural poverty and poverty alleviation in Mozambique: what's missing from the debate? , 1998, The Journal of Modern African Studies.

[8]  Ian Scoones,et al.  The politics of biofuels, land and agrarian change: editors' introduction , 2010, The Journal of peasant studies.

[9]  John Wilkinson,et al.  Biofuels in Brazil: debates and impacts , 2010 .

[10]  D. Byerlee,et al.  Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can It Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits? , 2011 .

[11]  Ben Richardson,et al.  Big Sugar in southern Africa: rural development and the perverted potential of sugar/ethanol exports , 2010, The Journal of peasant studies.

[12]  S. Vermeulen,et al.  Over the heads of local people: consultation, consent, and recompense in large-scale land deals for biofuels projects in Africa , 2010 .

[13]  Giorgos Kallis,et al.  The political ecology of Jatropha plantations for biodiesel in Tamil Nadu, India , 2010 .

[14]  Lorenzo Cotula,et al.  Land grab or development opportunity? Agricultural investment and international land deals in Africa. , 2009 .

[15]  B. O'Laughlin.  Past and Present Options: Land Reform in Mozambique , 1995 .

[16]  Tania Murray Li,et al.  Centering labor in the land grab debate , 2011 .

[17]  S. Gillon,et al.  Fields of dreams: negotiating an ethanol agenda in the Midwest United States , 2010, The Journal of peasant studies.

[18]  E. Lunstrum.  Mozambique, Neoliberal Land Reform, and the Limpopo National Park* , 2008 .

[19]  Philip McMichael,et al.  Please Scroll down for Article Journal of Peasant Studies a Food Regime Genealogy a Food Regime Genealogy , 2022 .

[20]  M. Wuyts.  The Agrarian Question in Mozambique's Transition and Reconstruction , 2001 .

[21]  S. Borras,et al.  From Threat to Opportunity? Problems with the Idea of a "Code of Conduct" for Land- Grabbing , 2010 .