India Africa Agricultural Cooperation: Potentials and Opportunities
Prof. S.N. Malakar
Centre for African Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University
The most urgent task of today’s world is to focus on the agrarian issues which address the cause of 80% people dependent on agricultural production and its distribution. Agriculture, the existence and survival being the major part of economy determines the existence and survival of human beings. Problems of the decline in the agricultural production in Africa and India has caused the starvation, malnutrition, poverty, migration and ultimately the mounting social conflict in both the regions.
In this context the cooperation in the fields of agriculture is the urgent task to address this issue. India and Africa both have experienced the policy of colonial legacies which has affected the basic structure of agricultural cooperation. Despite the agricultural production ownership pattern of land structure and its impact on agrarian production also addresses the commonality between India and Africa. In this context, the important aspect between two countries has introduced different policy initiatives. India has initiated the modern, technological and scientific method to accelerate the agricultural production. In many regions of India Green revolution and diverse agricultural production activities have occurred in post colonial period. Along with it India has also developed the research and development institutions. It has also developed the food processing industry, cold storage and many forms of utilisation of the bio-diversity to the respective requirement. India has also cultivated the indigenous techniques of agricultural production. Animal husbandry has been focused for the meat and dairy production through the guidance of village level organisations.
Africa in some regions has introduced the Green revolution but still it has not given the significant result in the area of agricultural production. The impact of colonial legacy is still strong while it has concentrated only on cash crop production and has not proceeded for grain production. In the world market the demand of cash crops from Africa has gone down because of the high cost of production in the cash crop. The cash crop production happens to be one of the major source of African economy from the export point of view. The decline in the export has created the miserable economic scenario in Africa, the need for grain production and the diversity of Agrarian production is the task which is to be properly addressed. One of the important aspect of African agriculture is that African people have the indigenous knowledge of agriculture which ought to be focused for the revitalisation of African agriculture.
India and Africa both can learn with each other’s indigenous technique. More so the scientific and technological oriented agricultural production can be utilised from Indian experience. The understanding for the mutual exchange of the peasants and agricultural workers and the scientific methodology of agrarian productions be seen in terms of cooperation. The agricultural cooperation between two regions, India and Africa can be also addressed in the field of food processing industry, animal husbandry, fish production and many more areas. We always emphasize that there should be a people’s to people’s relation between Africa and India. Agriculture being the concern of 80% people of both the regions will be one of the most important factor for bringing the people of both the regions together. At the same time the South-South cooperation will have a real footage when we emphasize this aspect of cooperation. The paper will focus on the historicity of agrarian questions of pre and post colonial period, changing nature of production pattern, strength of agricultural capacity building, the potentials and opportunities involved in the process of cooperation.
By ASA India on 27-Jan-2010
ABSTRACT
India-North Africa strategic partnership in Agriculture: Agenda for Capacity Building & Sustainable Development
Prof. C.S.Sundaresan
School of Management, KIIT University, Orissa
Agriculture in the India and the North-African member countries have been facing the pressure of a growing population with increasing demand for food (food security) while there has been declining support from the national climate, land use patterns, water resources, soil conditions coinciding with advancing urbanization, deteriorating knowledge systems and the marginalizing poor. The marginalization of the poor is the core concern given their predominant dependence on the farms for livelihood and employment. There have been initiatives for global cooperation in agriculture research and development to gain a substantial growth in the farm sector and to create effective demand driven institutional and innovation systems to meet the complex needs of sustainable agriculture development through the promotion of agri-businesses.
Strengthening inter-regional partnerships is one of the key components of sustaining the agriculture and establishing demand driven agri-business systems towards establishing a sustainable market driven development in the two regions. The proposed paper therefore attempts to identify the strategic partnerships between India and countries of North Africa in the fields of high value agriculture for value addition, which can enhance the rural incomes and thereby the standard of living of farmers. The major objective of the paper is to identify the scope and options for strategic agri-business partnerships between India and the North African countries through established backward and forward linkages by using the expertise and experience India gained in the agri-business sectors. The specific objectives of the papers therefore are;
To map the probable models of collaborative agri businesses towards sustainable development an stake holder relationsü To identify the high value agriculture and Agri-business sectors for joint action –Stakeholders, markets and Value Chains.
To establish the scope of agriculture and agri-business collaboration between India and North Africa.The methodology for this study has been the secondary literature and data analysis and arriving at a preliminary road map for the strategic collaboration in the high end agri business sectors. Suitable statistical and mathematical tools will be deployed at various stages to establish the relations.
By ASA India on 26-Jan-2010
ABSTRACT
India & North Africa: Trade and Economic Relations
Ms. Mausumi Galvankar
Centre for African Studies, University of Mumbai
This paper analyses India’s trade and economic relations with the North African countries. The Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India announced the Focus Africa programme with a view to enhance India's trade with Africa. In 2003, the scope of was further extended to the six countries of North Africa - Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Sudan, Morocco and Algeria. High level bilateral meetings and visits by trade and industry delegations have been organized with a view to strengthen the trade partnerships with these countries.
India has for long shared excellent bilateral relations with Africa with the total trade volume valued at $35 billion in 2008-09 and trade with the North African countries has been growing at a rapid pace. The total trade between India and these countries exceeded $8 billion in 2008. With the discovery of oil and gas in Egypt and Sudan, these countries have become vital to India’s energy security needs and have extended new areas for exchanges and cooperation. Indian companies have secured concessions in Sudan, Egypt and Libya. Morocco, Tunisia and Algeria are of enormous importance to India’s food security as providers of rock phosphate, phosphoric acid and potash, all of which are fertilizer inputs. Commodity trade turnover with countries of North Africa was US $ 5207.68 million during 2006-07 as compared to US $ 2389.01million during 2005-06, indicating growth of 117.98 %.
While Egypt has traditionally been one of India’s most important trading partners in North Africa accounting for 40% of India’s trade in the region, India-Sudan bilateral trade has grown by 100%. India’s trade with Libya got a tremendous boost in the hydrocarbon and energy sector after 2005. Algeria a member of OPEC has become an important economic partner in the recent years. Morocco is also keen to learn from the Indian experience in reforms and development of human capital. Tunisia has also expressed its desire to share the Indian experience especially in agriculture and scientific research.
Thus, India’s reform path portrays as a role model for the North African countries. Moreover it is important to note that India also faces the challenges in this region with China as one of the biggest Asian rivals especially since 2007.
This article would like to highlight the problems and prospects of India’s trade and economic partnership with North African countries.
From Fort Jameson to Chipata: The Contribution of Indians to the Social and Economic Development of the Eastern Province, 1899-2010
Prof. B.J. Phiri
Department of History, University of Zambia
Fort Jameson was established in 1899 as an important administrative town for the British South Africa Company (BSAC). In that year Robert Codrington, who was then the Deputy Administrator of North-Eastern Rhodesia transferred his headquarters from Blantyre in Nyasaland. The town was founded near Mpezeni’s palace following the latter’s defeat the previous year by BSA Company forces. Almost immediately Fort Jameson became a small but successful centre for trade and other socio-economic services concomitant with an emerging town.
Within ten years of its establishment, Fort Jameson had attracted a considerable number of Asian traders, (mostly from India). These Asian traders found themselves in an environment already under European occupation and had to curve a livelihood which placed them in a precarious situation at times. The study examines the introduction of Asian/Indian merchant capital in Eastern Province and the impact it had on the economies and consumption patterns of the local peoples.
The study also examines, among other things, the political establishment of Fort Jameson (Chipata) and the impact the colonial town had on the economic development of the town itself and the surrounding areas. The study further examines the response of the local African population to the establishment of a settlement that was very different from the village type of settlement that Africans were used to in the pre-colonial times or on the eve of colonization.
Urbanization as a subject of historical enquiry by historians has largely been tilted towards the mineral rich Copperbelt and the line of rail. The so-called rural areas and their emergent towns have not attracted much attention except as places where labour was extracted from for the urban centres—which in the context of Zambia generally refer to the Copperbelt and the line of rail. This study seeks to re-examine this approach and analyse the way in which Fort Jameson as an emergent administrative centre contributed to power relations between the old and the young and how perceptions of wealth transformed the way in which society was to be transformed.
By ASA India on 26-Jan-2010
ABSTRACT
Diaspora as a Strategic Resource between India and Africa
Dr. Nivedita Ray
Ford Foundation Fellow, Centre for African Studies, JNU
The diaspora are one of the contemporary global forces shaping the direction and trends of international development in the 21st century. This reality makes it imperative for governments to engage with them in development efforts in their respective homelands. Both India and Africa see their diaspora as a strategic resource available to contribute to their country’s development. They are proactively engaging their diaspora for increasing their sphere of influence and building effective partnerships for their socio-economic development.
The Indian diaspora in Africa has a substantial presence and diverse spread in Africa. Individually and collectively Indians in Africa have grown in stature today. They are occupying important positions and are contributing substantially to the development and prosperity of their country. For India its diaspora in Africa could be strong allies in articulating India’s strategic interest. In fact this huge Indian Diaspora in Africa can be asset for both countries, as they occupy a vital strategic position that links India and Africa in a meaningful way. If they are galvanized they can play a role as valuable strategic actors in strengthening India- Africa Partnership. Both India and Africa should try to reap maximum benefits from the strategic bridge building potential of the Diaspora. But in this context the key question is how should India navigate its policies to harness the potential of its diaspora, so as to maximize country’s strategic and development goals. How can India and Africa partner not only to effectively use the Indian diaspora as strategic resource for strengthening their relationship, but also to build capacity of their government to transform their Diasporas into an effective resource to have a consummate engagement with its diaspora. These are the key questions that the paper will try to address in its attempt to understand Diaspora as a strategic resource between India and Africa.
