4. Nile Basin: agricultural development
(past and present)
Current Food
Development (In)Security
Agricultural Poverty and
Trade Food Crises
5. Main Nile
agricultural systems
Irrigation (medium and large): Egypt
and Sudan
Rainfed mechanised farming: North
Sudan
Rainfed subsistence agriculture
(small holders):
Upstream countries
(Agro-)Pastoralism:
Sudan, Ethiopia, South Sudan and
Uganda
12. Nile Basin: Food Crises
1990s:
2010/11:
1970s Horn of
War-related
(Ethiopia) food crises Africa
1980s 2000s:
(Ethiopia and ‘Green
Sudan) Famine’
Climate Conflicts Politics Aid
Land use and
productivity ...
14. Nile Basin: agriculture development
(potential/future)
Potential
Foreign Land
Agricutural
Acquisitions
Development
Land,
Transboundary
Development
Dimension
and Peace
15. Nile Agricultural Potential
High agricultural potential
Land and water available
Agriculture and the NBI (Project: ‘Efficient
Water Use for Agricultural Production’)
Lack of regional perspective vs. National-
based developments
Nile Basin: Old ‘breadbasket’ phenomen
Land Acquisitions: not a new reality
2008: Global tipping point in the foreign
land acquistions
16. Foreign land acquisitions in the Nile
Basin: not a new phenomen
• Sudan, the breadbasket
• Colonial times + 1970/80s
• Commercial/mechanised agriculture
• Market-oriented agriculture
• Priority for food production?
• 1980s: famine crisis in Sudan
• Breadbasket dream failed
17. New land acquisitions in the Nile Basin
• Since 2008
• What is being produced?
• Who are the ‘dealers’?
• Political process
• Status of land
leased/developed
• Main challenges
18. New land deals: what and who is involved?
Sugarcane
Biofuels
Foreign investors (private and
public): Gulf countries, India, China,
Cotton Rice US and EU - and Egypt
‘National’ investors: agri-business
Palm Oil Flowers companies, diaspora, etc
Coffee/ Corn, National governments: federal and
Tea
wheat, regional level
alfafa,
groundnuts
19. Political process: advantages for ‘investors’
• Fertile land and and water available
•Long-term land leases
• Market liberalisation
• Cheap labour
• Low land rents
• Tax exemptions
• Support from the national governments
• Policy framework for intensification of
commercial agriculture
• No limits on water use
•Often access to existing infrastructures
• Possibility to build hydraulic infrastructure
•Free access to the water resources (KEY)
ACCESS TO UNTAPPED WATER RESOURCES
20. Political process: Benefits for host countries
• Development of ‘unused’ productive land
• Technology transfer
• Infrastructure improvements
• Employment
• Macroeconomic investment/growth
21. Status of land leased/developed?
Leased
(millions of hectares of land)
50%
Impacts?
<10%
22. New foreign land acquisitions:
main challenges
• Customary uses • Monoculture
and rights • Deforestation,
• Agriculture vs. soil quality
Pastoralism • Water flow
• Local food regimes
security
Socio-Economic Environmental
Political/
Development
• Policy options: Security
macro/micro • Local resource-
based conflicts
• National food
security • Transboundary
impacts
• Sustainbale
development • Power balance
23. Land, development and peace
National
development Peace and
imperatives/ security in
host countries
sovereignty
Missing link:
regional approach
Global
development Regional
perspectives: Peace and
international security
markets
24. Nile Basin:Transboundary dimension
of the new land deals
• Land and water nexus
• Water allocation for
agriculture development –
what, where and how?
• Positive: Awareness of
agriculture potential –
new opportunities for
trade and new markets
• Negative: Old grievances
about water for
agriculture
25. Conclusion
• New land deals: tipping point in
the Nile agricultural development?
• Large vs. Small-scale agriculture:
benefits and challenges
• Food-crops vs. Cash-crops:
benefits and challenges
• Peace and Security: local-national-
regional conflict nexus
• Regional approach to agricultural
development in the Nile Basin?
