Brazil PHOTOS:BloombergBrazil is actively sharing its experience in agriculture with Africa, and there are hopes that this might be a critical contribution towards realising the continent’s elusive ‘green revolution’
Ever since former USAID director William Gaud coined the term “Green Revolution” in 1968 to describe the technological breakthroughs that transformed the agricultural fortunes of India in the 1960s and 1970s, development efforts have sought to recreate an elusive green revolution in Africa.
Africa is the only region in the world where overall food security is deteriorating. It has gone from being a net exporter of food in the 1960s, to a net importer today. Only 6 percent of the continent’s total farmland is irrigated, and population growth currently outstrips annual increases in food production.
To address these challenges, an increasing number of countries are looking to Brazil, which has experienced its very own, more recent, green revolution. Under the banner of “South-South” cooperation, trade and political cooperation between Brazil and Africa have soared under the presidency of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Keen to share its experience in mastering tropical agriculture, there are high hopes that Brazil may offer some solutions to unlocking the agricultural potential of a continent that many believe will be vital to ensuring future global food security.
Having faced concerns about its own food security as recently as the 1970s, Brazil’s agricultural sector has undergone a staggering transformation. From the 1970s to 2005, agricultural productivity grew at an average of 2 percent per year, outpacing China, India, Argentina, Canada and the US. Between 2000 and 2009, agricultural output more than tripled from $25bn to $88bn. Today, it is the world’s second largest producer of agricultural goods.
Brazil is a net exporter of food, and in 2009 was the world’s leading exporter of beef, chicken, sugar, orange juice and green coffee amongst others. In 2008, 28 percent of total sugar and sugar confectionary imports in Africa, 18 percent of dairy products and 17 percent of cereal imports originated in Brazil.
Success has not been restricted to food production. Brazil has also developed one of the world’s most vibrant biofuels industries, and in 2008 produced 6.4bn gallons of fuel ethanol, second only to the US. Despite using just 1 percent of Brazil’s agricultural land, 45 percent of the country’s energy demand is supplied by bioethanol.
“We managed to solve a structural problem we had in Brazil in terms of lack of productivity in our agricultural production until the 70s…with the creation of Embrapa [The Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation],” explains Ambassador Piragibe Tarragô, the Brazilian under-secretary general for political affairs covering Africa and the Middle East.
“It was set up related to a particular project of developing agriculture in the Cerrados, a region similar to the Savannah in Africa. It is a huge area in Brazil, about a third of our territory.”
The experience of the Cerrados region, which translates as “closed” or “inaccessible” in English, is perhaps the most striking example of Brazil’s green revolution.
“The general impression was that this was wasteland,” says Dr Francisco Reifschneider, a senior researcher at Embrapa. “Today this ‘wasteland’ produces more than 45 percent of the total grain of this country. So maybe there are other ‘wastelands’ across the Atlantic that are not wastelands at all.”
This example “put to rest the argument that agriculture is not suitable for the tropics and that it can only be done in temperate climates,” adds Mr Tarragô.
Dr Pedro Arraes, the president of Embrapa, agrees. “We have domesticated tropical agriculture. So we can now really partner with African countries… research and development is no panacea, but is very important for development, and Embrapa has a lot of knowledge on tropical agriculture. There are many similarities between Brazil and Africa in terms of ecosystems and challenges,” he adds.
Embrapa is today considered to be a global leader in tropical agricultural research, and Brazil has developed technologies and machinery specifically suited to a tropical climate. All of this, Mr Arraes and Mr Tarragô argue, makes Brazil an ideal partner for Africa.
“The idea makes sense – to use this technology developed by Embrapa – in Africa,” says Jorge Arbache, a senior economist with the World Bank. He is, however, doubtful about the extent to which this can be done at this point. “Part of the success here in Brazil is related to some basic conditions which were there. I am talking about access to power, credit, banking accounts; some minimum knowledge.” These, he argues, are not always available in Africa, including some of its more developed economies.
Access to finance remains one of the biggest barriers to the development of African agricultural production, the majority of which is in the hands of smallholder farmers in the informal sector. Companies such as South Africa’s Standard Bank, in association with organisations such as the Opec Fund for International Development and the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, have launched some initiatives to address this issue, but such steps are still very much in their infancy.
Add to this the fact that much of sub-Saharan Africa suffers from inadequate transport and power infrastructure, transferring Brazil’s success to Africa may be easier said than done.
This does not deter Mr Tarragô, who observes that “it is something that cannot be accomplished overnight, of course. It is a long-term programme but we have to start somehow.”
Brazil has not been reticent in attempting to turn words into action. Organisations such as Embrapa already offer technical assistance and training to a number of African countries. The country is also keen to share its expertise in biofuel production. In November 2009 Mozambique signed two accords with Brazil to invest $6bn in biofuel exploration. Similar initiatives have been launched in Uganda, Senegal, Nigeria and Angola.
It is a drive that is continuing apace. During President Lula’s final state visit to Africa in July, agriculture was once again high on the agenda, with Kenya joining the list of African countries keen to tap into Brazil’s knowledge of biofuel production. Just days after his return to Brazil, the European Union, Brazil and Mozambique announced an agreement to develop bioelectricity and biofuels projects in the Southern African country.
All of this is good news for Africa, believes Dr Lindiwe Majele Sibanda, chief executive of the South Africa based Food, Agriculture and Natural Resources Policy Analysis Network. “Africa has been talking about emulating the green revolution from Asia… but that was of the 1960s. If you look at what Brazil is now bringing to the table, these are recent and current achievements.”
Brazil’s engagement with Africa is, however, not without its potential for controversy. The acquisition of large tracts of land in Africa by a number of countries, aimed primarily at securing their own food supplies, have attracted widespread criticism, with some calling them “land grabs”, and at worst, accusing these countries of engaging in “neo-colonial” activities.
In 2009, a proposed 99-year lease by South Korea’s Daewoo Logistics for 1.3m hectares of land in Madagascar was even held partly responsible for sparking the unrest that led to the forced overthrow of the country’s government, ultimately resulting in the deal being cancelled. Less publicised deals have included South Korea’s acquisition of 1,000 km2 of land in Tanzania, while Saudi Arabia has purchased large tracts of land in Sudan.
Brazil will also have to contend with questions about the wisdom of large scale ethanol production on a continent that is unable to meet its population’s food requirements. “This is an extremely controversial issue from my view depending on whether or not there is a trade-off here between food production and food security and biofuels,” says the World Bank’s Mr Arbache.
At Embrapa, Mr Reifschneider believes that equality between Brazil and its African counterparts will be critical if it is to avoid such controversy. “We would like to see Brazil as a partner country, and there is a major difference there when you position yourself as a donor versus a partner,” he says. “What we are sharing is based on our own experience, successes and failures, there are many of both as you can imagine,” he adds, highlighting the fact that Brazil’s success today is based on extensive trial and error.
This is echoed by Mr Arraes, who says: “Actually it is a process of learning and doing, because we are now facing the same problems. We have not become a developed country; we are still a developing country… Embrapa doesn’t decide what kind of priorities Africa has. Africans have to decide their priorities. I think that is a big difference from the past.”
Examples such as the Brazil-Africa Dialogue on Food Security, Combating Hunger and Rural Development, held in the capital Brasilia in May, demonstrate that these are more than just words, insists Mr Arraes. “I personally received 33 ministers of agriculture from Africa,” he says of the summit, attended by representatives from more than 40 African countries.
The World Bank’s Mr Arbache believes the outcome statement from that summit does suggest that there is evidence that Brazil is genuine in its proclaimed desire to be more partner than donor to Africa. “According to the statement, African countries say what their priorities are, and based on that Embrapa and other partners here in Brazil will provide training, resources and so on and so forth… It seems that it is a genuine partnership. The country is offering more than it is asking.”
Positioning itself as a partner does not however mean circumventing the donor community. The joint agreement with Mozambique and the European Union to fund biofuels research is just one example of Brazil’s active engagement with the international development community. It recently launched the Africa-Brazil Agricultural Innovation Marketplace initiative, a program designed to share knowledge between the two regions. Along with a wide range of research associations, this includes the involvement of the UK Department for International Development, the World Bank and the United Nations International fund for Agricultural Development.
Brazil is also involved in the Farming First initiative, a collaborative effort between a broad range of international agricultural associations, NGOs and members of the business community, aimed at promoting sustainable agricultural development.
Mr Tarrago believes such cooperation is vital if Brazil’s partnership with Africa is to succeed. “This will have to be done with the help of international institutions and donor countries as well, in providing resources to help finance these operations. Brazil can provide the expertise, but when it comes to materialising them you need financing for infrastructure, credit for farmers and so on.”
Fanrpan’s Dr Sibanda is enthusiastic about this emphasis on partnership, saying that “we have been talking a lot about South-South cooperation, without really tangible examples of people who have walked the talk,” she says, arguing that “this cannot be a big brother relationship, it has got to be genuine partnership. I think that is the attractiveness of Brazil.”
While this will undoubtedly be a welcome development, it also increases the burden of responsibility on individual governments to implement the appropriate policies to ensure that potential is turned into reality. In this respect, she believes African nations would be wise to learn some crucial lessons from Brazil. “What we can learn from Brazil is the value of political leadership. Leadership that is bold to prioritise what needs to be done, and move forward and set the example,” she says.
Getting the policies right, and creating a macroeconomic environment conducive to investment will be critical, she adds. Beyond this, ensuring continuity of such policies will be vital.
How exactly individual governments articulate such policies will be subject to a variety of considerations, but Ms Sibanda contends that there are good reasons to believe Africa is beginning to exhibit the kind of leadership necessary to turn the potential of engagement with countries such as Brazil into tangible results.
She points to examples such as the Comprehensive Agriculture Development Programme, an initiative from the New Partnership for Africa’s Development aimed at bringing together national and regional actors to share knowledge and experience in the field of agriculture throughout Africa. Eighteen countries have so far signed up to the programme, which has four pillars or policy priorities; land and water management, market access, food supply and hunger, and agricultural research.
Some of Africa’s regional economic communities, such as the Economic Community of West African States and the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa, are actively articulating their own agricultural priorities.
“For once Africa is organised,” Ms Sibanda says, adding that “what’s exciting is that when you have a plan, no one can derail you. You are able to benchmark, you are able to direct help into building onto the priorities that you have identified. And that’s what makes Africa unique these days.”
Source:
TIA