Reframing the New Alliance Agenda: A Critical Assessment based on Insights from Tanzania

Through the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition, in 2013 G8 countries are seeking to mobilise the private sector and multi-national corporations to boost African agriculture. This new Future Agricultures / PLAAS briefing (pdf) looks at how African countries are engaging with the New Alliance. The authors argue that large-scale acquisitions of land for corporate agriculture, which may result from New Alliance projects, pose a serious challenge for local markets and smallholder farmers. Underlying assumptions, about the effectiveness of technology transfer and boosting productivity to address food shortages, need to be challenged. With insights from the Southern Agriculture Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT), the authors recommend how African countries could reframe their approaches to support food production and rural communities, including

securing tenure rights and access to strategic resources in line with the FAO’s Voluntary Guidelines
improving land and other governance institutions to ensure transparency and accountability
investing in smallholder farmers through extension services, inputs and access to markets.