PRESIDENT DISMISSES DANGER OF LAND GRABBING

Mozambican President Armando Guebuza on Sunday in Yokohama categorically denied that land grabbing could take place along the Nacala Corridor in the north of Mozambique under the ProSavana project.The President stressed that “we do not want to take land from farmers. On the contrary, the objective is to make available, with title, land for farmers and to make this land more productive for the benefit of the farmers themselves.President Guebuza is in Yokohama to participate in the fifth Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), which takes place from 1 June to 3 June.He was reacting to voices claiming to represent Mozambican farmers associations and civil society organisations. In particular, the president of the National Peasants Union (UNAC) alleged at a press conference in Yokohama that there is a “serious and imminent threat of land grabbing and the forced removal of communities”.  ProSavana, a project to transform agricultural production in an area covering about ten million hectares along the Nacala Corridor, is a tri-lateral project being developed by the Mozambican government in partnership with Brazil and Japan.The ten year project aims to transform the tropical savannahs into major areas of agricultural production.President Guebuza was speaking during a seminar entitled “Development Corridors” which was run in parallel with TICAD. He explained to the audience the importance of ProSavana for the communities, the country and region as a whole.He pointed out that the advantages that ProSavana brings to the country are firstly economic as the project will enable peasant farmers to embrace commercial agriculture and access markets. This is currently not possible because of the low level of production and high costs.ProSavana will provide fundamental services for increasing productivity such as research centres, extension services and improved infrastructure.The President pointed out that this will result in socio-economic development and will raise the standard of living of the peasant farmers.Minister of Agriculture Jose Pacheco expressed his indignation at the allegation that the project will take land from peasant farmers.Pacheco stressed that ProSavana is not an island, nor is it the first development corridor in Mozambique.He explained that ProSavana is part of an integrated political strategy for Mozambique’s development, which includes increasing productivity through improved seeds, research to enhance farming methods, and the adoption of new technology.This will allow farmers to make a quantitative leap to double or quadruple their productivity. Peasants will then no longer be preoccupied with subsistence farming as they will be able to produce a surplus for market.Transport Minister Paulo Zucula gave the example of the Maputo Development Corridor, which was the first of its type in the Southern African Development Community (SADC). This project registered enormous successes in the areas of agriculture, industry and transport.Zucula pointed out that in the area covered by the Maputo Development Corridor agricultural production doubled and there were no protests about the expropriation of land – in fact farmers were able to expand the area under cultivation.He argued that the same success was achieved along the Beira Corridor where small, medium and large scale producers have continued to live in harmony.Zucula said that “ProSavana is a consolidation of the experiences we have acquired. So this is nothing new for us”.He also pointed out that in Mozambique all land belongs to the State, which licences its use based on community consultation.