World Food Policy Volume 2, Number 1, Spring 2015 | Page 11

World Food Policy

as well as in upstream and downstream
activities, by strengthening value chains
and improving the incomes of farmers—
which are the levers of rural demand and
economic diversification (Losch, FréguinGresh and White 2012). This need gives
a priority for public policies: support
first family farming and help farmers to
deal with the existing risky environment
(natural, economic, and institutional)
through adequate infrastructure and
services, improved markets (information
and regulation when needed), and
“smooth” subsidies (for accessing credit,
insurance, and inputs). Drafting the
adequate policies will be more than
providing technical solutions.

significant as initially put to the fore. As
shown by the Land Matrix (2014), China
would be ranked 6th if number of deals
are concerned and only ranked about 15th
if the area is considered (see Figure 1),
making it not one of the major players and
investors, without an offensive strategy,
in agriculture and land on the continent
(Anseeuw et al. 2012; Gabas 2014).

This first observation is confirmed
by China’s foreign aid as detailed in its
White Papers of 2011 and 2014 (PRC
2011; 2014). The amount of foreign aid
allocated to agriculture remained and is at
present relatively low. Indeed, according
to the White Paper of 2011, agriculture
represented only 4.3%—i.e., $52.6 million
for all developing countries—of the
cumulated Chinese concessional loans
until 2009 (PRC 2011). Although no
disaggregated agricultural information
is available for Africa, aid for the sector
globally would account for about 2%
between 2012 and 2014 (see Figures 2 and
3).10

This being said, the multiple
projects and actors, either public or
private, implicated in China or on the
ground in Africa, show that agriculture is
certainly not being ignored by China. This
is illustrated by the numerous projects
mentioned in China’s White Papers (PRC
2011; 2014).11

III - China in rural Africa: myths
and realities

I

n that specific context, what has
been and what is the contribution of
China, which is one of the most visible
and scrutinized foreign player, to the
development of agriculture and the rural
sector?

Data is scarce and often very
contradictory, but what becomes more
evident is that China’s role in agriculture
in Africa, and particularly related to
the land grab phenomenon, is not as

10

There is no disaggregated data for agriculture in Africa, knowing that China’s foreign aid to Africa
accounted for 46% of China’s total aid in 2009 (See China’s White Paper 2011 (PRC 2011)) and even 52%
($7.7 billion) during the period 2010–2012 (See China’s White Paper 2014 (PRC, 2014)).
11
According to the two White Papers (PRC 2011; 2014), agriculture has always been a target of Chinese
cooperation. Until 2009, China implemented 221 projects focused on agriculture in developing countries: 35 farms, 47 centers of experimentation and development of agricultural technology, 11 livestock
projects, 15 fishery projects, 47 irrigation projects, and 66 other unspecified agricultural projects—as
well as supply of farm equipment. Between 2010 and 2012, China developed 49 new projects in agriculture: 25 agricultural demonstration centers, 21 irrigation projects, and 2 projects based on the transformation of agricultural products (Gabas and Ribier 2015a; 2015b).

10