Why African farmers are upset about the New Alliances annual progress report

Towards the end of 2015, we posted this video of landless farmers in Nigeria telling global palm oil giant Wilmar International that they oppose the large scale land deal that sold off their livelihoods to this multinational corporation. That land purchase was and is part of the expansion of industrial agribusiness in Nigeria promoted by the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition — a program that provides aid money from rich countries like the U.S. and the UK to help big business invest in the African agricultural sector, in return for policy changes in African countries that will bend the rules governing land, seeds and trade to favor big business.

Now, UK-based organization Global Justice Now has produced a beautiful photo gallery that puts more faces to the communities who are fighting to keep control over their land, seed and soil.

The photos are accompanied by a sharp analysis, showing just how New Alliance policies are (not) helping Africa’s farmers. Global Justice Now uses a simple but cogent method to show how the New Alliance promotes profits over people: by dissecting the annual progress report of the New Alliance, they show the proportion of words referring to corporate investment, as compared to words referring to food, farmers, human rights and hunger. While the word ‘investment’ is mentioned 101 times, for example, the word ‘hunger’ — theoretically the issue at the heart of the New Alliance’s efforts — comes up five times.

No wonder the farmers of Nigeria are not especially thrilled to turn over their land to New Alliance companies like Wilmar. See the full post from Global Justice Now, here. And, in case you haven’t seen it yet, here is what some farmers in Nigeria have to say to the New Alliance company that booted them off their land: