The Grab for global food and water resources

[SANZ]

Interesting article about a documentary on the pursuit of global resources including Zambia:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/art...mentary-review

With reference to Zambia:

"The film connects their confusion to the despair of Zambian farmers displaced, via a complicated and westernized deeds system, by mercenary militias to make way for commercial farmland controlled by outside actors from various countries – China, Gulf states, the US. The scramble to obtain farmland at the expense of local residents represents “the new colonization of Africa”, says Brigadier “Brig” Siachitema, a Zambian lawyer fighting for indigenous property rights. The Grab hears from farmers with horrific tales of displacement – prolonged homelessness, the death of a toddler from the cold, bulldozed ancestral burial sites. The culprit is not one country or company but a shadowy network of mercenary interests, farms backed by “a Russian doll of LLCs and LLCs”, says Halverson in the film. “And the more we dig, the more it becomes clear – that could be owned by anybody.”
Halverson and his team did dig into it, eventually obtaining what they refer to, cautiously, as “the trove”: a year’s worth of emails within the private equity firm Frontier Resource Group, founded by Erik Prince, who also founded and was the CEO of the military contracting company Blackwater – a notorious mercenary group during the US invasion of Iraq – and the brother of former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos. The emails, from 2012, reveal a clear plan to obtain, by whatever means necessary, land in Africa to fulfill competing national interests; the CIR team eventually pieces together that one of Prince’s backers was Sheikh Tahnoon, a member of the Emirati royal family, as well as China.
They also reveal a chilling disregard for human life – “people die in the third world. It’s Darwin selection at its most pure,” reads one email."

[SANZ]

If the above interests you, it includes this link which is an interesting/concerning read:
https://www.hrw.org/report/2017/10/2...acement-zambia

[Kalahari Safari]

Interesting article about a documentary on the pursuit of global resources including Zambia:
https://www.theguardian.com/film/art...mentary-review

With reference to Zambia:

"The film connects their confusion to the despair of Zambian farmers displaced, via a complicated and westernized deeds system, by mercenary militias to make way for commercial farmland controlled by outside actors from various countries – China, Gulf states, the US. The scramble to obtain farmland at the expense of local residents represents “the new colonization of Africa”, says Brigadier “Brig” Siachitema, a Zambian lawyer fighting for indigenous property rights. The Grab hears from farmers with horrific tales of displacement – prolonged homelessness, the death of a toddler from the cold, bulldozed ancestral burial sites. The culprit is not one country or company but a shadowy network of mercenary interests, farms backed by “a Russian doll of LLCs and LLCs”, says Halverson in the film. “And the more we dig, the more it becomes clear – that could be owned by anybody.”
Halverson and his team did dig into it, eventually obtaining what they refer to, cautiously, as “the trove”: a year’s worth of emails within the private equity firm Frontier Resource Group, founded by Erik Prince, who also founded and was the CEO of the military contracting company Blackwater – a notorious mercenary group during the US invasion of Iraq – and the brother of former Trump education secretary Betsy DeVos. The emails, from 2012, reveal a clear plan to obtain, by whatever means necessary, land in Africa to fulfill competing national interests; the CIR team eventually pieces together that one of Prince’s backers was Sheikh Tahnoon, a member of the Emirati royal family, as well as China.
They also reveal a chilling disregard for human life – “people die in the third world. It’s Darwin selection at its most pure,” reads one email."

I'm sorry but with respect to Zambia this is sensationalistic reporting of the "alternative truth" of what the Merican's want to hear.
It is either outdated (by decades) or overexaggerated with little factual evidence or research to complement the bias created by domestic American propaganda.

In fact, Zambia has strived in agriculture and lots of new field produce is being experimented with, like the cultivation of Avocadoes, the plantations of Pineapple and new crops apart from staple Meallies (Mais) ever since the Zimbawean "reform" on farmland has driven the farmers out of Zimbabwe. Many have settled in Zambia and the net result is production increase that from a net importer of staples,, Zambia has become an exporter of crop based products.

I cannot comment on American agriculture, as it is incomparable with African way of farming.

Note:
Don't take a spot picture but look at the development over 20 years, at the moment the drought has negative impact on productivity especially in agricultural aspects.

[dilligafrican]

I'm sorry but with respect to Zambia this is sensationalistic reporting of the "alternative truth" of what the Merican's want to hear.
It is either outdated (by decades) or overexaggerated with little factual evidence or research to complement the bias created by domestic American propaganda.

In fact, Zambia has strived in agriculture and lots of new field produce is being experimented with, like the cultivation of Avocadoes, the plantations of Pineapple and new crops apart from staple Meallies (Mais) ever since the Zimbawean "reform" on farmland has driven the farmers out of Zimbabwe. Many have settled in Zambia and the net result is production increase that from a net importer of staples,, Zambia has become an exporter of crop based products.

I cannot comment on American agriculture, as it is incomparable with African way of farming.

Note:
Don't take a spot picture but look at the development over 20 years, at the moment the drought has negative impact on productivity especially in agricultural aspects.

Agree. I'm friends with a number of ex-Zimbos who move to Zamba after their farms got grabbed.

They built new farms from the ground up.

Thing is, Zambia is so fertile - you can chuck virtually anything in the ground an it will grow.

It helps that it is water rich - some major rivers there like the Zambezi, Kafue and Luangwa.

Been on a few of Zambeef's farms - the scale is extraordinary. IIRC the one in the copperbelt is like 30,000 hectares, with around half that under irrigation

[Kalahari Safari]

Correct, but the picture in the moment might be a bit gloomy as there is water and power issues related to drought and low water levels in power generation plants like Kariba and Itezhi Tezhi.

[SANZ]

We have long known about China's involvement in Africa. I was highlighting the increasing involvement/investment and pursuit of resources in Africa by counties such as UAE which in 2022 and 2023 pledged $97 billion in new African investments across a range of industries and resources including farming. These are recent and not altruistic.
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/388e1690-...2-0c971dbfe6f0

[Kalahari Safari]

We have long known about China's involvement in Africa. I was highlighting the increasing involvement/investment and pursuit of resources in Africa by counties such as UAE which in 2022 and 2023 pledged $97 billion in new African investments across a range of industries and resources including farming. These are recent and not altruistic.
Source: https://www.ft.com/content/388e1690-...2-0c971dbfe6f0

This FT article is behind a pay wall

....... but I must first see the Chinese in agriculture in Zambia (or Africa in general) apart from supplying machinery etc.

If influence by China, it is in resources such as timber, rare woods and minerals whereas they build roads in trade for access to the areas of exploitation, but that is possibly unrelated to the article in reference.