Hon.January Makamba
Tanzania colors in streets of Riyadh during our visit
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By January Makamba 27 July 2013
In April 2009, the King of Saudi Arabia, King
Abdullah, invited the President Kikwete for a visit.
As an aide and speechwriter I was part of the visit and
attended meetings as a note-taker. The President arrived in Riyadh around 6pm.
Normally, the 89-year old King does not go to the airport to receive his visitors,
he instead sends one of the senior Princes.
But, on this occasion, the King came to receive President Kikwete and
was standing at the foot of the plane as the President disembarked.
Before the arrival, the advance team had arranged
a stay at a Riyadh hotel but we were told that the King had ordered that we
stay in one of his palaces. I have never seen such tight security…dogs,
armored-vehicles, etc. and I had a butler I did not need.
The visit centered around trade and investments.
Saudi firms were keen to look at Tanzania. So, the President did what he does
best: pitching Tanzania as an investment destination. He was honest about the
challenges and convincing about the opportunities.
We then went for state dinner hosted by the King at
the main palace. The dinner was preceded by official talks. It was surprising
and refreshing that the dinner was very small – almost private – with about 20
people. The curved walls of the dinning room were literally a single fish and
shark-tank – from floor to ceiling. There was no mistake that you were in the
Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
The later discussion amongst us who advice the
President was how to go about with repeatedly expressed interest by the Saudis
and later the Qataris to seek huge chunks of land in Tanzania for large investment
in agriculture.
Almost all Arab countries, with their
fast-growing population and without land for agriculture, were looking into
Africa for growing food. The Saudis are unlikely to face oil crisis anytime
soon but cereals crisis is beckoning. They grew wheat in the
desert but that was depleting desert fresh water aquifers very fast.
In the next 25 years, world demand for cereals
will more likely increase by 50 percent. There are two ways in which this food
can be found: by increasing yields in the currently cultivated land or by
cultivating new areas. Of all the continents, only Africa has suitable and
sizable tracts of uncultivated land.
Food is now a globalised commodity, meaning that
its price and supply are dictated by dynamics independent of the whims of
sovereignty (not least the weather!). And indeed taste and choices in food
depends on many other things beyond necessity (increase in income by the
Chinese, as a result of the Chinese economic boom of the last two decades, has
made the Chinese eat more meat, which has increased the global demand for
feedstock for pork, chicken and cattle which in turn has increased demand and
prices for cereals, leading other people to remain hungry). Consequently, the
production of food for the global or "local" markets, just like cars
and computer chips, follow where inputs are readily cheap (read Africa).
So, as Presidential advisers, if the Saudis and
Qataris ask for what amounts to 0.5 percent of 100 million acres of arable land
in Tanzania, under which circumstances would you say yes. It is important to
note that out of 100 million acres of arable land that we have, only 25 percent
is under use, of which 80 percent is under subsistence agriculture.
And you are considering this question at the
backdrop of a fall of Madagascar’s government because of a land deal with South
Korea, and in the backdrop of a new catchy phrase, “land-grab”, thrown around
with gay abandon by everyone.
In recalling my personal notes back then, I
wrote that there should be some parameters under which these land-for-agriculture
deals should stay within:
1. There should not be displacement of people or
dispossession of land as a result of these agreements.
2. It is true that our landownership system
(leasing) is seen as anti-investment. But we should not change it to freehold
system just to accommodate these deals.
3. There should be local value addition processes
(if it is wheat or rice, at least kukoboa and packaging should be done locally
by locally-owned factories).
4. There should be development of physical and
social infrastructure in and around the farms. CSR projects by farms – a well
here, some desks there – will not cut it.
5. There should be some backward and forward
linkages - some out-grower activity should exist. We also must insist that the
production of fertilizers and other inputs for these farms should be done here
and should not be just for exclusive use of these farms.
6. Agricultural research and transfer of agricultural
technology and skills should be the main components of these deals.
7. Eventually, as a result of number 6 above,
together with access to agricultural financing, locals ought be able to do large-scale
commercial farming. Large farms in Tanzania should not exist to create farm laborers.
They eventually create large-scale farmers.
8. Finally, the scenarios you do not want to have
is that of containers shipping out wheat or rice abroad while you have long lines
of people waiting for food aid...like in some countries where you see oil rigs
offshore but long queues at the petrol stations.
Lesson: in advising the President, honesty and
open-mindedness are key attributes. It is a challenge because (i) in working
with the President, you know how he thinks and his preferences – so it is so
easy to fashion your advice along his line of preferences. That is a huge
disservice to him; and (ii) in working with the President, everything is
political and the instinct is to protect him and this may cause you to close
your mind and not explore other potentially politically risky but high reward
ideas.
I was fortunate that President Kikwete is very
open-minded. But you will have to be very well prepared to defend your arguments,
as he will challenge you – sometimes with angles you hadn’t seen or facts you
hadn’t considered. If you withstand the challenge, he will take your views on
board.
BTW, on this trip, I flew to Jeddah, drove to
Mecca and got to pray there.
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