UNU-WIDER | September 2014

Agricultural systems with pro-poor orientation in Mozambique? ProSAVANA and the forgotten risks of contract farming

Isabela Nogueira de Morais

Presentation to the UNU-WIDER Conference on Inclusive Growth in Africa: Measurements, Causes, and Consequences Helsinki, 20–21 September 2013
 
Abstract

Mozambique provides a remarkable example the shortcomings of economic growth that lacks pro-poor orientation. After two decades of macroeconomic success, poverty reduction has stalled. A twenty-year agricultural development programme called ProSAVANA was launched in the Northern region with the intention of reversing this tendency. It supports the spreading of contract farming over the Nacala corridor in order to allow the entrance of foreign investors into Mozambican agriculture without automatically dispossessing local farmers.

This article documents some of the programme’s practices during its planning phase and analyses its limitations in terms of preventing the inherent risks of contract farming schemes.

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