FAC Working Paper 49. Chinese and Brazilian Cooperation with African Agriculture: The Case of Mozambique

Abstract

Mozambique, a country undergoing important transformations driven by the recent discovery of mineral resources, is one of the top destinations of Chinese and Brazilian cooperation and investment in Africa. It makes, therefore, an interesting case for understanding the nature of the Brazil-Africa and China-Africa encounters, as well as analysing commonalities and differences between these two rising powers in international development. The purpose of this paper is to provide an account of the policies, narratives, operational modalities and underlying motivations of Brazilian and Chinese development cooperation in Mozambique. It is particularly interested in understanding how the engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular exchanges. The paper draws on three experiences representing a variety of engagements and suggesting the increasingly blurred motivations shaping cooperation encounters: (i) ProSavana, Brazil’s current flagship programme in Mozambique, which aims to transform the country’s savannah land spreading along the Nacala corridor, drawing on Brazil’s own experience in the Cerrado; (ii) the Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC) in the outskirts of the Mozambican capital; (iii) a private Chinese rice investment project in the Xai-Xai irrigation scheme, which builds on a technical cooperation initiative. The conclusion discusses the extent to which observed dynamics on the ground suggest the emergence of distinctive patterns of cooperation and identifies issues for further research on Brazilian and Chinese engagements in Mozambique. This FAC Working Paper is an output of the \'China and Brazil in African Agriculture” (CBAA) project, funded by ESRC Grant ES/J013420/1