brazil’s)contested)agronomy)for)africa:)) insights)from ... · pdf...
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Brazil’s contested agronomy for Africa: insights from Embrapa’s knowledge
encounters in Mozambique
Lídia Cabral
China and Brazil in African Agriculture h,p://www.future-‐agricultures.org/research/cbaa
Contested Agronomy: whose agronomy counts? Ins=tute of Development Studies, 23-‐25 February 2016
(replacing) short-‐handled hoes
(learning from) Escolas na machamba
Two vigne9es
Embrapa: 43 yrs old, 46 units, 2,444 researchers
The Embrapa ‘miracle’
‘Since 1996 Brazilian farmers have increased the amount of land under cul=va=on by a third, mostly in the cerrado. (...) And it has increased produc=on by ten =mes that amount. But the availability of farmland is in fact only a secondary reason for the extraordinary growth in Brazilian agriculture. If you want the primary reason in three words, they are Embrapa, Embrapa, Embrapa.’
(The Economist, Aug. 26th 2010, my emphasis)
Embrapa goes to Africa
‘To have Embrapa in the city of Accra, in Ghana, is the beginning of a peaceful revolu=on that will have as result the germina=on of grain, food, products that can do in the African savannah the same revolu=on that Embrapa carried out in the Brazilian cerrado’
(President Lula speaking at inaugura=on of Embrapa Ghana, 2006)
‘Affini=es of historical ethnical, cultural, linguis=c and economic nature – as well as shared heritage and aspira=ons – favor the expansion and realiza=on of south-‐south coopera=on and contribute to its success’
(ABC, Diálogo Brasil-‐África, 2010) • Need to interr
ogate the
narratives of agricu
ltural
success and of tropic
al
technology that underpin
Embrapa’s South-South
cooperation practices
• Contested agronom
y
perspective – is Em
brapa’s
agronomy disputed?
• Need to interro
gate
claims of suitability of
Brazil’s tropical techn
ology
for Africa (based of agro-
climatic affinities) and of
horizontality in knowledge
exchange
• Knowledge encoun
ters
perspective – are Embrapa
professionals’ experie
nces any
different from typical ai
d
workers
Embrapa professionals in Mozambique • 14 researchers from 11 units and two
departments at Embrapa HQ • Their exper=se: agronomy, rural sociology,
rural economy, chemistry, sta=s=cs…
• Working across 3 coopera=on projects
• Only 2 based in Mozambique; others opera=ng through short term missions
• Ac=vi=es comprising collec=on of soil samples, crop adapta=on experiments, training, studies
Disputed knowledge base Dominant Confined
• Cerrado transforma=on (Brazil’s Green Revolu=on) as success template
• Science (and Embrapa) as key to Brazil’s agricultural success
• Brazilian leadership on tropical agricultural science
• Science as separated from policy and poli=cs and should remain neutral
• Cri=cal of Cerrado modernisa=on and ready-‐made recipe of success
• Favourable of agro-‐ecological alterna=ve (cri=cal of use of hybrids)
• Science as driven by interests of the be,er-‐off in the sector
• Emphasis put on social func=on of research (should serve social objec=ves of public policy)
ContrasEng encounters Dominant Confined
• Mozambican agriculture as primi=ve and rudimentary
• Take science to Africa to modernise its agriculture – passing on improved tropical varie=es that help replicate Brazil’s success
• Frustra=on with lack of coopera=on from local counterpart (lack of competence and commitment, not interested in learning in absence of financial incen=ves)
• Emphasis on results – how well Brazilian cul=vars responded to local condi=ons
• A,empt to correct backward prac=ces – ‘short-‐handled hoe’ episode
• Cri=cal of unidirec=onal ‘pass the baton’ mode of knowledge transmission
• Emphasis on process of mutual learning finding more embedded solu=ons
• Interested in understanding the other and developing a rela=onship
• Frustra=on with short =meframe of project and rush to deliver
• Finds poten=al for learning from Mozambican prac=ces – ‘escolas na machamba’
In sum
• Brazil’s ‘tropical’ agronomy for Africa is dominated by a view of replicable success delivered through technological transfer (this is driven by interests beyond knowledge reproduc=on)
• This dominant framework and unidirec=onal mode of knowledge transfer are being disputed from within, challenged by different epistemologies and values (and ins=tu=onal and par=san poli=cs)
• Claimed natural affini=es Brazil-‐Africa not sufficient to ensure a fruihul and horizontal knowledge exchange
• Personal aitudes ma,er!
Further research
• What is the role played by the life trajectories of Embrapa professionals (where they studied, what studied and genera=on)? – Embrapa’s old-‐school US-‐trained agronomists more conserva=ve?
– Young genera=ons fail to engage with Embrapa’s ‘epic past’ (Navarro and Alves 2014)
• What evidence of actual bi-‐direc=onal South-‐South exchange in agricultural coopera=on prac=ces? – Are Brazilian experts different from typical aid workers, from the point of view of Mozambican counterparts?