Agribusiness and territorial development : the example of the Senegal river delta

E. Valette, CIRAD, UMR Art-Dev

Controversies

The private sector and foreign investments in African agriculture

• a key role in the process of revitalizing agricultural production through agribusiness-led development ?

or

• A risk to the well-being of the poorest familyfarmers?

• The opportunity to fullfill large and exploitable yields gaps and cultivate suitable “marginal or unoccupied lands” ?

or

• A global land acquisition phenomenon resulting in “enclaves of advanced agriculture” offering little benefit to the host nations and “resulting in purely extractive neo-colonialism” ?

Controversies

Investors from 12 countries for more than 500 000 Ha (from 2003)

46 873 ha

45 557 ha

57 085 ha

38%

31%

31%

En production

En coursd'installation