FLOWERS FOR FOOD?
FLOWERS FOR FOOD?
Evans Kirigia
黑料不打烊 University听
Foreign agro-investments in sub-Saharan Africa have risen significantly in recent years owing to favorable climatic conditions, availability of and ease of access to land and water resources, and听importantly, cheap labor. The Dutch constitute the lead investors within the floriculture sector in Eastern Africa, and the Dutch government has provided investment incentives to Dutch听companies through development-related subsidies and favorable loans. The prevalent justifications for these agro-investments have been the perceived abundance of unused and underused听tracts of arable land and the need to bolster global food security. Private sector investments have been proffered as apposite levers for poverty alleviation and inclusive growth in the听sub-Saharan context. Floriculture companies, in this regard, can facilitate the attainment of these developmental goals through increased income generation via local employment; transfer of听agricultural knowledge; linking smallholder producers to global markets; and earning export revenues for the host countries. In this talk, I draw from the field research I carried out in Kenya,听Tanzania, Uganda and Ethiopia to address the following questions: how can a sector that produces an aesthetic, inedible, luxury product in flowers enhance food security in food-insecure听countries whilst competing for critical land and water resources? And how does employment facilitated by the availability of cheap labor enhance local livelihoods especially while operating听within the violent global capitalism system that is underpinned by processes of 鈥榣etting die鈥� (Tyner 2016)? Further, how do floriculture investments convey an image of responsible and听sustainable actors within an environment that is increasingly scrutinized within the lens of听sustainability and corporate responsibility?听
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Location: Peterson Hall, 3460 McTavish Street, H3A 0E6, Room 116
*Due to construction, use the left side entrance
Refreshments will be served.
Centre for Society, Technology, and Development (STANDD)
Tel: 514-398-1807