China’s Green Revolution and African Agricultural Development - Full Talk

William Moseley, an Africanist professor at Macalester College, discusses China’s Green Revolution in relation to African agricultural initiatives in the present day. He debunks the myth of the Chinese Green Revolution and describes the ways that this purported success has been used as a political tool to argue for a China-style transformation of African agricultural systems.

1. (0:00) Preliminary Remarks

2. (0:52) Introduction to the topic

3. (5:46) The Chinese Green Revolution narrative (1m 26s in the edited version)
The Great Famine of 1958-61 (5:58) (1m 37s in the edited version)
Response (6:37) (1m 51s in the edited version)
The opening up of China (7:26) (2m 40s in the edited version)
The exchange of Green Revolution technology with the West (7:46) (3m 4s in the edited version)
Becoming the world’s largest producer of nitrogenous fertilizers (8:03) (3m 22s in the edited version)
Reform of China’s agricultural sector (8:37) (3m 49s in the edited version)
Firing from the bottom strategy (11:06) (6m 19s in the edited version)
Poverty reduction (12:01) (7m 12s in the edited version)
The Chinese Example (12:25) (7m 35s in the edited version)

4. (13:10) The Counter-Narrative (8m 20s in the edited version)
Joshua Muldavin’s perspective (13:26) (8m 35s in the edited version)
The surge in production has a different root (14:20) (9m 47s in the edited version)
Overuse of chemical fertilizers and soil acidification (15:48) (10m 26s in the edited version)

5. (16:51) Deploying the China Narrative in an African context (11m 56s in the edited version)
Post-global food crisis (17:06) (12m 8s in the edited version)
Synergy with Chinese interests (18:19) (13m 16s in the edited version)
Chinese aid over the past fifty years (20:12)
United States aid (28:03)
The 2008 global food crisis (29:57) (14m 57s in the edited version)
The impact on the urban poor (31:22) (16m 16s in the edited version)
Effects of the food crisis (31:46) (16m 40s in the edited version)

6. (33:12) The situation in Mali (18m 6s in the edited version)
Ban on grain exports (33:54) (18m 45s in the edited version)
Removal of import tariffs (34:20) (19m 12s in the edited version)
NERICA rice initiative (34:46) (19m 29s in the edited version)
The Malibya Project in the Office du Niger (40:11) (24m 46s in the edited version)
A brief history of the imperial projects in the region (40:31)
Where China comes in (42:22)
How this project has been sold to the Malian people (47:05)

7. (48:02) Conclusion (30m 56s in the edited version)
Does the Chinese green revolution narrative work for Africa? (48:10)
Parallels with structural adjustment (48:23) (31m 8s in the edited version)
Benefits to outsiders (49:25) (32m 10s in the edited version)
What not to do (50:16) (32m 58s in the edited version)

8. (51:08) Why doesn’t China grow its own food?
“Pretty tapped out” (52:22)
Increasing trends toward industrialization (53:06)

9. (53:23) Does urbanization affect agricultural demand?
Increase in food demand is directly tied to urbanization (54:23)
A big force driving these concerns (54:49)
Feeding animals (55:04)
Alarm bells (55:42)

10. (56:01) How urbanized is Mali?
Bamako is one of the fastest urbanizing cities on Earth (56:05)
The push factors behind this urbanization are stronger than the pull factors (56:28)
70% of Mali’s population is rural (57:06)

11. (57:28) What is the role of labor in current development?
Labor-intensive development projects (58:25)
A shift towards having skilled labor imported from China (59:12)

12. (1:00:10) What coming conflicts do you see over water in Mali?
The geographical positioning of Bamako (1:01:23)
Primary reasons for constructing dams (1:01:42)
Energy needs are a bigger issue (1:01:55)

13. (1:02:30) Could you elaborate on the biointensive route? (33m 44s in the edited version)
Concerns with the new Green Revolution approach (1:02:56) (33m 44s in the edited version)
Biointensive agriculture (1:04:26) (33m 46s in the edited version)
Issues of production (1:05:23) (34m 43s in the edited version)
A need for governmental and scientific support (1:05:51) (35m 8s in the edited version)

14. (1:06:42) Do we show the government the error of their ways or educate the local people to empower them for change? (38m 8s in the edited version)
“A nuanced, hybrid approach” (1:07:47) (38m 10s in the edited version)
The problem (1:08:07) (38m 23s in the edited version)
The negative narrative (1:08:26) (38m 40s in the edited version)
A better way to operate (1:09:24) (39m 42s in the edited version)

15. (1:10:01) What can we learn from successful Green Revolutions? (36m 1s in the edited version)
The Green Revolution was problematic everywhere (1:10:41) (36m 4s in the edited version)
Replicating the flaws of the first Green Revolution (1:11:51) (37m 5s in the edited version)
Regarding the Zimbabwe Case (1:12:05) (37m 29s in the edited version)

16. (1:12:52) What about foreign-direct investment?
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