Sebastien Berger, London Telegraph, October 21, 2009
More than half a million acres of neglected state farms in the south will be signed over in the first tranche with more to follow if the scheme is a success.
It is estimated that 25 million acres, almost one third of all Congo’s land, is underused.
In the first stage of the programme, South African farmers will be given rent-free, renewable 30-year leases on an area the size of West Yorkshire in the hope they will be able to improve the country’s farming industry.
The deal is the latest twist on the recent scramble for land in Africa which has seen foreign countries buying up huge areas of land in the hope of securing food supplies.
China, South Korea, and India have all made major investments in African land and raw material reserves in recent years.
But the contract between the South African commercial farmers’ union, Agri-SA, and the central African country is the first time such an agreement has been struck within the continent.
The country is in the throes of an oil boom but has no commercial agricultural sector of its own.
Most food sold in shops has to be imported, mostly from France, the former colonial power, and is extremely expensive. Tomatoes retail for around £8 a kilo and meat more than £30 a kilo.
Theo de Jager, deputy president of Agri-SA said hundreds of farmers were likely to take up the opportunity and the first assessment visits were expected by the end of next month.
Such agreements have proved immensely controversial elsewhere—an agreement for the South Korean conglomerate Daewoo to take over much of Madagascar was a factor in the overthrow of president Marc Ravalomanana earlier this year.
But Mr de Jager said: “We don’t want to go in there and be part of a conflict or create a conflict, we don’t want to be in competition with people who are already using that land.
“We are Africans ourselves, we have been here for generations and I think we understand them better than other commercial farmers from elsewhere in the world.
“We are used to integrating with the local communities, it’s not like when the Chinese in DR Congo bring in their own labour force and inputs.”
Paul Nkounkou, a retired agricultural engineer in Congo, added: “We have at our disposal a lot of uncultivated land because we lack the material and financial means. These South African investors are welcome.”
There has been criticism of the deal in France, pointing out that Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the Congolese president, is widely considered to be severely corrupt.
But Mr de Jager believes such attacks are motivated by a desire to protect French interests against competition.
“We are not into politics, he invited us and it seems to us like a good deal,” he said.
It could be the first of many such agreements, as South African farmers feel under pressure because of a commitment by the ANC government to redistribute 30 per cent of the country’s agricultural land to black owners by 2014.
Pretoria has so far operated a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ approach and is adamant there will be no repetition of the chaos in Zimbabwe, but Mr de Jager said negotiations are under way with 16 other African countries to secure similar deals.
“There’s no way to expand here, we have a drastic shortage of arable land and water, so it’s the logical thing to look at opportunities beyond our borders.”
Original article
(Posted on November 4, 2009)
Comments
“South African farmers will be given rent-free, renewable 30-year leases on an area the size of West Yorkshire in the hope they will be able to improve the country’s farming industry.”
First of all, a piece of paper to a black, as demonstrated in Rhodesia and South Africa, is no more than a piece of paper, so a lease is worthless.
Secondly, do any white takers really think these blacks are any different than the others and that their successful farms won’t be turned over to blacks once they’re on a profitable basis?
The only way for whites to succeed in a land where blacks live is to be militarily stronger. Force and/or the threat of force is the only they understand. It’s certainly the only think they respect.
The country is in the throes of an oil boom but has no commercial agricultural sector of its own.
Congo has no commercial agricultural sector of its own because blacks have been in charge of getting the food out of the ground.
Now, it seems, non-blacks will be doing both.
Left to their own black devices, neither oil nor sufficient supplies food would be coming out of the ground — either in Congo or anywhere else in Africa. Without non-black assistance, nothing would ever get done on that continent at all.
Blacks are the personification of the principle of Entropy.
Oh how nice of them to offer the farmers some land, what a noble people they are. And once the Whites build everything up, they will rise up to “reclaim what was stolen from them.” Sure as the sunrise.
Why don’t these white farmers tell the blacks there to stick it where the sun don’t shine!
I’ll go out on a limb and make a few predictions. First, any sensible white farmer knows he is on shaky legal ground, to say the least. They can call it a 30 year lease all they want, but the slightest whim of the government can change that in an instant. So, they won’t exactly be putting down deep roots, I don’t think. Capital investment will be minimal, farmers will be careful about buying large bulk quantities of supplies, the newest and most expensive tractors and combines won’t be used, etc. They will rely on dirt cheap labor moreso than if they were in a western country. And they will still be charging higher prices than normal, to recoup their investments as quickly as possible before the economic climate changes.
So, to recap: high prices, larger profit margins than farmers in safe countries, low capital investment, low yields (compared to white farmers in free countries), and lots of black workers being paid low wages to harvest. This is an environment ripe for a demogogue to exploit, even though the root problem is of course the corrupt black government. I don’t expect this experiment will last very long.
As an ex-Soyth African now living in Europe, this will eventually (in our life times) happen in South Africa where white African farmers are being dispossessed of their lands which have been in their families sometimes hundreds of years. One South African failed black farmer (took over a white-Africa’s farm and ran it into the ground) being interviewed on SA TV recently let slip that “Things were better when the whites were in charge.”
Food aid must be refused to Africa for it does not encorage the
All 3 of the comments obviously come from white Africans. Nobody else would know or understand the situation & predictable outcomes.
First of all, a piece of paper to a black, as demonstrated in Rhodesia and South Africa, is no more than a piece of paper, so a lease is worthless.
Absolutely correct. The people who come into power six or seven years from now will say, “You didn’t make a deal with us. You made a deal with THEM, the outgoing politicians. We will have to strike a new deal all over again…”
Absolutely galling.
Well, well, well. Looks like this idea is spreading rapidly in other African counties too. No doubt these experienced White farmers will keep an eye on each other just in case another outbreak of mugabeitis is detected. I note that government loans are being provided and long land leases are free so this bodes well. Meanwhile, back on the cotton ranches of Zimbabwe, the recently installed ‘freedom-fighter’ farmers are discovering that the state monopoly purchasing arm of the Min of Ag is paying less per bale than the cost of production and leading to many complaints. Fat lot of good that will do them.
http://www.afrol.com/articles/10506
In the 60’s the Rhodesian farming industry got a massive boost when the white Kenyan farmers started tea growing there. Nigeria is wooing the white South African farmers in a big way, they even finance them. Congo is one of the most fertile countries in Africa, it is almost unbelievable that they would starve to death without imports. As for South Africa, they got what they deserve.
“There has been criticism of the deal in France, pointing out that Denis Sassou-Nguesso, the Congolese president, is widely considered to be severely corrupt.”
As opposed to Frence polititians, who are not severly corrupt, but only extremely corrupt.
I actually don’t think this is bad for the White SA farmers. They might as well, since there is no future for South Africa. They just better make sure that once they get on their feet, they build up a personal army.
People forget the lessons from the past. There were white farmers in the Congo a couple of decades ago and they had to flee when unrest broke out.
Someone mentioned that a new leader would take over and declare that the deal is off, as the land was given to them by the previous government.
This is a true indication of the African mindset. You can buy land from a black man, but you must know that one day his children will be back to claim the land. They will say that it is their land and no amount of common sense will prevail.
These farmers are some of the best in the world, any country like Ukraine, Russia or Eastern Europe should fight to get them to their countries, they would be a huge asset for any country.
If I would be Putin I would beg them to come to Russia where there is plenty of land and the SA farmers would help a lot.
They should live Africa for good, there is no future for them there.
White South Africans seem destined to become Africa’s anti-gypsies, making somewhere better, getting booted out and doing the same thing somewhere else.
The Chinese, the Koreans, and the Hindus are all colonizing Africa. Interesting. African ineptitude, the fact that they have not evolved as much as other races, doom them, just as the introduction of dogs into Mauritius meant the extermination of dodo birds. IMHO, we ought grab a big chunk of it ourselves. There’s a lot of fertile land in south and east Africa, and the natives sure aren’t using it very well. We could say we’re rescuing the White minority, which is threatened with extinction, if we feel we need an excuse. And our own African-Americans would welcome the opportunity to re-establish their ancient cultures in west Africa, free at last from the burden of the White Man’s civilization.
15 — Schoolteacher
Last week with the talk of Jack Straw in regards to the BNP on Question time, I was digging around and found …
‘How Much Did Straw Know and When Did He Know It?’ http://tinyurl.com/ykvukug
On Mr Straw’s then British Foreign Office’s prior knowledge of an alleged coup plot in Equatorial Guinea in 2004.
After a series of denials by British Ministers, the then Foreign Secretary Jack Straw was forced to admit that he knew a coup was being planned as early as January 2004.
I thought this a little ironic considering how he presented himself as a champion of diversity, I suppose oil revenue trumps ‘people power.’
The alleged ring leader of this coup is a quintessentially English gent, educated at Eton College and is an ex British SAS Captain named Simon Mann. http://tinyurl.com/6r7ren
Who was arrested in 2004 and spent four years incarcerated in Harare’s Chikurubi jail, Africa’s most notorious TB and Aids infested hellhole of a jail.
Amnesty Internationals description of Black Beach Prison; Inmates have to wear handcuffs and anklets at all times, even when asleep, and are not let out of their cells 24 hours a day. The lack of food, the daily abuse and unhygienic conditions mean that they are also easily susceptible to illness. Rations for the inmates were cut two years ago from a cup of rice a day to one or two bread rolls. Those on punishment details are often denied even this bare sustenance. Kolawole Olaniyan, Amnesty’s head of Africa programme, said: “This is a scandalous failure by the Equatorial Guinea authorities to fulfil their most basic responsibilities under international law. Unless immediate action is taken, many of those detained will die.”
‘Mann: I was not the main man’http://tinyurl.com/32euty (an interesting video interview from 2008 where Mr Mann says all the right things to get released.)
And just now while putting this post together I learn…
‘Simon Mann pardon: A South African president flies in, a famous inmate is freed. Coincidence?’http://tinyurl.com/ykem26j (3rd Nov 2009)
Huh? Jacob Zuma got him released.
Seriousily I think I’ll stay put, too much cloak and dagger stuff.
“We have at our disposal a lot of uncultivated land because we lack the material and financial means. These South African investors are welcome.”
It is just not the lack of material and financial means. The knowledge of how to farm commerical properties of large size and do so in an industrial manner is lacking as well. Subsistence farming is moslty what the African knows, if not the only thing.
I remember this sort of thing was proposed for Mozambique, but not a whole lot happened. Again, large farms being farmed on an industrial basis for BOTH export crops and domestic food.
Laudable ideas but it remains to be seen if governmental instability will allow for success.
Most of the comments are right on the money. But nonetheless, a good idea.
16 Gen X: I didn’t have cloak and dagger methods in mind. Africa is going to be carved up by resource hungry nations that have more intelligence than the Blacks do. The Blacks have about as much chance as American Indians did, or maybe the buffalo. A desperate world will have little time for dancing and drumming and chasing balls around, and no time at all for idlers and thieves. If Blacks continue to exist at all it will be as isolated remnants in barren lands, what the Pygmies are today. The Chinese and Indians will not be dissuaded from a what they see as policy of national survival by the threat of African prisons, nor by Africa’s armies or its starving millions. Neither should we.
