Monday, January 12, 2015

Chinese Agricultural Investment in Zambia

Photo credit: Solange Guo Chatelard
Our sister website, the China Africa Research Initiative at Johns Hopkins University (SAIS-CARI) has just published the fourth policy brief in our series: Solange Guo Chatelard and Jessica M. Chu, "Chinese Agricultural Engagement in Zambia: A Grassroots Analysis," SAIS-CARI Policy Brief 04/2015.

Solange and Jessica are Ph.D. students who traveled across Zambia to interview many of the 30 or so Chinese agricultural investments in Zambia, which currently hosts the largest number of Chinese farming investments in Africa. Their report makes fascinating reading. Highly recommended, as are Policy Briefs 1 through 3.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Thank you, Ms. Deborah, for providing us the most valuable reading material regarding Chinese involvements in the Agricultural scene in Zambia

Among the many interesting facts as have listed in the report, the one about the 'restrictions' applied to the Chinese farmers in Zambian markets is the most striking --- Despite the ability of providing cheaper food to the Zambians the authority decides to place limits on the Chinese sellers

For example, the Chinese chicken traders have to clear out of the marketplace by 8AM - and the Zambian authority's rationale is that they have to 'protect' the locals

Instead of encouraging the local to increase their efficiency the authority's action has an adverse effect - discouraging efficiency and rewarding inefficiency

This kind of action is both short-sighted and causes more harm than good to the Zambians as a whole --- the Zambian consumers don't get to enjoy cheaper food (in other words, get to buy more food with the same amount of money and feed their family much better) and the local producers don't get the chance to become more efficient (since the same old way are encouraged, who needs to be more efficient?)

Until such time the local authority realize that the Chinese farmers are the perfect 'catalyst' for a much positive change for the Zambian society, Zambia as a whole will continue to suffer the same-old-mediocrity

Deborah Brautigam said...

Interesting observation. If course it is easier to protect the small farmers than to help them modernize.

Anonymous said...

Ms. Deborah,

If you read the article you would understand that the Chinese farmers themselves are not necessarily equipped with 'modern technology', and in fact, most of the Chinese who ended up working in the farming sectors in Africa had never been a farmer, before they arrived at Africa

They only became farmers because of the sheer size of the opportunity available in Africa. Wuth the great size of population (the market), and the land which hasn't been properly utilized (the place) many of the newly arrived Chinese went to farming because it makes sense to them

Most of the Chinese farmers themselves are 'small farmers'

In other words, 'protect the small farmers than to help them modernize' in this case, does not apply

I have been in big size farms in China, and in a chick farm (hatchery) they actually produce more than 5 million chicks one day

The Chinese farmers in Africa are in no way comparable to the modern farming reality back in their own country - China

Deborah Brautigam said...

To rephrase my comment, it is easier for the Zambian government to protect Zambian small farmers than to help them upgrade their facilities to compete with Chinese farms. Some Chinese farms selling chickens in the market are fairly large.

Karollin said...

Hi Deborah, my pleasure I found your site, while I was searching for the content like this one. Happy to learn about Chinese Agricultural Investment in Zambia. This is really a fascinating reading. Very informative and inspiring too. Thank you very much for sharing the article. Best Tiller