ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia (PAMACC News) - “The Paris Agreement is somewhat weak in terms of how African countries will attract the required investments to deal with the challenges of climate change…,”says James Murombedzi, Officer in Charge of the Africa Climate Policy Centre of the United Nations economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).

While heralded as a landmark global deal on climate change, there remains a feeling of impotence from the Africa group on certain nuances of the Agreement and its implications to the continent’s development agenda.

However, signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for Parties as it was universally agreed by the then 196 members to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—UNFCCC, in Paris last year.

This therefore implies that whatever issues Africa has with the Agreement and its implications, would have to be dealt with at the negotiating table, and this is the point at which the Young African Lawyers (YAL) Programme becomes crucial.

Established under the ClimDev-Africa Programme, YAL has the overarching goal of strengthening Africa’s negotiating position and ensuring Africa gets the best at the UNFCCC processes.
 
“Signing and ratifying the Agreement is not optional for us as Africa,” says Natasha Banda, a young Legal Practitioner from Zambia, one of the mentees under the programme.
 
Being part of the legal advisory team for the Zambian negotiators through the UNFCCC country Focal point person, Banda believes ratifying the Agreement is not negotiable and the starting point “because the nature of international Agreements is that you cannot have bargaining power from outside,” and is certain that Zambia, which is yet to ratify, would do so once all necessary processes are complete.
 
In recognition of the importance of addressing the impacts of climate change comprehensively, and the unique roles and responsibilities of lawyers in the process, the Young African Lawyers (YAL) programme brings together young and motivated African lawyers in integrating climate change responses into Africa’s development agenda.
 
According to Dr. Johnson Nkem, Senior Climate Adaptation Expert with the Africa Climate Policy Centre, and Coordinator of the programme, YAL is a crucial component for Africa’s climate governance framework, especially now that the world is moving towards a greener, cleaner future, as espoused in the Paris Agreement.
 
“While providing essential legal support to the AGN, the YAL programme is an important foundation for developing a cadre of African lawyers who are fully engaged in wider climate change issues. Legal advice on low-carbon trading transactions, for example, or integrating climate change into Environmental Impact Assessments are going to be increasingly important as the world heads towards a greener, cleaner future. As Africa anchors itself firmly in this global transition, the YAL programme aims to nurture the legal skills that will be integral to this process,” Nkem explains.

As well as the immediate benefits of providing legal support at the climate negotiations, YAL has the longer-term goal of building the expertise of young lawyers, to be applied in broader aspects of climate change policy and law.
 
And Rachael Rwomushana, a Ugandan Lawyer, testifies to the positive impact that the programme has had on her and on the country’s engagement in the UNFCCC processes.
 
Uganda is one of the African countries that has ratified the Paris Agreement, and Rwomushana believes she played a positive role as a young lawyer working in the office of the Attorney General.
 
“Being involved in the this programme has enabled me to better understand the process and the guidance that I can give to my country and the African Group of Negotiators in the process,” she says, stressing that African countries should not look back on the Paris Agreement but work to strengthen their climate governance so that they get the best out of it.
 
Under the guidance of two seasoned lawyers experienced in Multilateral Environmental Agreements such as Dr. Seth Osafo, former senior legal adviser of the UNFCCC Secretariat, and Matthew Stilwell, a climate change expert and legal adviser to the African Group of Negotiators, the YAL programme could be Africa’s hope for better climate governance engagement in the years to come.

With the availability of additional resources and support, the programme plans to expand to other interested participants and legal institutions across Africa in developing the knowledge-base of legal experts on climate change issues.

SIAYA, Kenya (PAMACC News) – When an American investor arrived in Siaya County in 2003 with a promise of transforming thousands of hectares that form the Yala Swamp into an agricultural and fish production potential, Mary Abiero, a mother of five children from Yiro village knew that a new brighter day had come.

But today, the 63 years old widow is one of the 280 women camping at the foot of Mt. Kilimanjaro in Arusha, Tanzania, representing over one million women in Africa who have been oppressed, and denied the right to own property, in particular land. 38 of the women will climb the mountain to the top as a symbol of elevating women voices to the highest physical location in Africa.

When he started his investment, the American farmer who had already acquired the entire Yala Swamp from the government decided to increase the portion from the original 3,700 hectares to 6,900 hectares so as to have enough reservoir of water for irrigated rice farming.

And to do so, he offered to buy land from all the neighbouring households at a predetermined price, which some farmers accepted, but others including Abiero rejected. But despite the objections, he went ahead to release water, which covered all the demarcated area including Abiero’s 10 acre (4 ha) piece, submerging houses, thus driving everybody from their private properties regardless whether they sold it or not.

Today, despite a court ruling that was issued in favour of the residents, Abiero is among hundreds of residents who watch from afar as someone mint profits from what belongs to them.

“We have tried all we can, we have visited administration offices time and again, but nobody seems to be interested in our plight,” said Abiero. “It is in this regard, despite my age, I have volunteered to follow other women and shout from the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro for the world to listen,” she said.

In another scenario in Malindi, along Kenya’s coastal line in Kilifi County, the story is no different. In 2001 for example, Chadi Charo Mwaringa, also a widow from Kanagoni Gundasaga village arrived home one day to a devastating reality. Her house, where she had been living with her late husband and children for decades had been pulled down by a salt mining company, which had allegedly bought the place.

“I got married here 40 years ago, and you can be sure very few local resident own land title deeds,” said the 67 mother of three grown up children. Along the entire coastal strip covering hundreds of thousands hectares of land, people have always lived a communal lifestyle for ages. The land has always belonged to the community, and not to particular individuals.

As a result, private developers have taken advantage to process title deeds for chunks of land, and used the legal document to forcefully evict residents from their ancestral homes.

“Lack of legal documents for land ownership is now the biggest problem in this area,” said Katana Fondo Biria, former area councilor who has not been able to process the title deed for his land due to bureaucracies, despite having served as a politician for five years from 1992.

Part of his land, including an airstrip which used to serve guests coming to his former Giriama Village Hotel has been taken over by a salt mining company.

“There are several cases of this nature in this area,” said Sifa Edward, who works for Malindi Rights Forum, a community based organisation that engages humanitarian organisations in an effort to solve the land equation in Malindi.

According to Philip Kilonzo, of ActionAid International Kenya, millions of people particularly women in the country and the entire continent are suffering due to land based injustices.

“Some cases are cultural, some are due to corrupt and inefficient systems, and others are political,” said Kilonzo.

It was based on these reasons that ActionAid, in collaboration with several other civil society organisations all over Africa organised for the ‘Mt. Kilimanjaro initiative’ whose aims is to create space for rural women to be able to participate in decision making processes about issues dear to them.

With access to and control over land and natural resources as an entry point, four regional caravans have already departed simultaneously from the North, South, East and Western Africa regions. This will culminate into a mass African rural women’s assembly and a symbolic ascent by a delegation of women.

The women plan to proclaim a charter of principles and demands specifically on women’s access to and control over their land.

END

Cameroon rice farmers in the East and Northwest regions have recorded significant progress in rice production in the last decade thanks to technological knowledge transfer from China.

Chinese rice production scheme introduced in these regions since 2006 has recorded improvement in yields, control of dangerous weeds, the fight against crop diseases, destructive insects and climate stress, agriculture experts say.

 Cameroon’s vast potential in rice and other cereals production is attracting not only investment from China with the setting up of some large-scale rice farms by the SINO-CAM IKO Agriculture Development Co. Ltd in Nanga Eboko in the East  but also providing the opportunity for training and technology transfer in high breed rice farming by rice farmers in Ndop in the Northwest . The scheme is not only boosting rice production in Cameroon but is also helping to improve on the income of rice farmers, as well as add value to the country’s second generation agriculture launched by the government since 2010.

“Cameroon rice farmers have really benefitted from training acquired from Chinese rice experts for quite some years now and this are impacting on the production. With high yield rice breed, and techniques to fight against diseases and the effects of climate change, many farmers have mapped out solution pathways to rice production,” says Bernard Njonga, President of ACDIC an NGO that defends the interest of farmers in Cameroon.

The Cameroon government says its rice production project with China that started in 2006 are a snapshot of Chinese engagement in agriculture in Cameroon, which is certainly not yet exhaustive. In the longer term, activities may accelerate, as more opportunities open up.

“We took the engagement to partner with the Chinese government in rice production not only because of their expertise in this sector but more because of their remarked interest to invest and promote agriculture in Cameroon in general,” says Henry Eyebe Ayisi, Cameroon’s minister of agriculture and rural development in an interview.

Today, the Chinese ‘un-whitened’ rice is produced, packaged and sold in different markets in the country for FCFA 300 per kilogram.

The rice production is expanding to other areas in the country with about 6,000 hectares in Nanga Eboko and 4,000 hectares in Santchou in the West Region. The company officials say they are producing over 100,000 metric tonnes of rice to feed over 600,000 people and providing employment to some 1,000 workers.

The rice production project is the fruit of the Sino-Cameroon relations especially in agriculture. The partnership agreement was signed between the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and the Integrated Industry-Commerce Corporation of the Shaanxi Land Reclamation and State Farms, China in 2006.

 According to the agreement the latter was granted 10,000 hectares of land for the production, processing and marketing of rice. The agreement was accompanied by the Chinese government’s aid package of 40,000,000 RMB or FCFA 2,8 billion to revive Cameroon’s vast potential in agriculture.

According to the ministry of agriculture,a major offshoot of the partnership agreement was the creation of the subsidiary of the Shaanxi Company in Cameroon under the name SINO-CAM IKO Agriculture Development Co. Ltd. Besides stepping up production, SINO-CAM IKO has, under the stewardship of Yang Haomin, scored several successes in research, improvement of yields, control of dangerous weeds and the fight against crop diseases and destructive insects.

To spread this knowledge and transfer technology throughout Cameroon, a Pilot Centre for Agricultural Technologies training was constructed in 2009 in Nanga Eboko that has helped significantly to empower young rice farmers especially women with innovative skills, demonstration and promotion of agricultural techniques.

 Over 1000 local workers in the East region and some 600 from the Northwest have been trained so far in rice farming techniques including the management of agricultural machines and hydraulics.

“Thanks to the Sino-Cameroon cooperation in rice production, local production scale has improved in quantity and quality,” Minister Eyebe Ayissi acknowledges.

  Improvement in local rice production in the country has since reduced importation as the Chinese breed ‘un-whitened’ rice comes to add to other local breed, Ndop and SAMRY rice produced in the East, Northwest and the Northern region respectively.

 Added to the Ndop Rice that is produced by the Upper Noun Valley Development Authourity UNVDA or the SAMRY rice that comes from the Northern region of Cameroon, the Pakistani, Thailand or Chinese rice now sells in many Cameroonian local markets.

Experts say Cameroon has enormous potentials and high arable fertile land for rice cultivation but records from the ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development says the country produces only 100.000 tons of rice far below the 300.000 tons on demand annually.

“Cameroon is endowed enormous resources especially arable fertile land and human resources to produce enough rice to meet the country’s demand and even export to neighboring countries. The farmers just need the right training skills and material support,” says Zachee Nzohngandembou, coordinator of the Center for Environment and Rural Transformation, CERUT, an NGO that works with farmers in Cameroon.

 With skills learned from the Chinese training programmes in the agro-sector  some rice farmers are now able to maximize production potentials with the introduction of two cropping seasons, he says.

“ This means they can now produce 75,000 tons of rice on a surface area of 15,000 hectares, which was not the case before the training,” says Nzohngandembou.

On another score, the SEMRY project in the Northern region that produces 70 to 80% of Cameroon home-consumed rice announced the acquisition of a rice paddy transformation machine with a ten ton capacity. SEMRY is in record for producing over 70,000 to 80,000 tons of rice annually.

According to experts, Chinese role in agriculture in Africa – in terms of business investment, technology transfer, demonstration efforts, and training – is growing, and shaping perceptions.

The Chinese Agricultural Technology Development Centers have flagship investments programmes for example  is helping many African countries including Cameroon improve production. There are now 23 across Africa, funded by the Chinese Ministry of Commerce under their aid programme, Chinese officials in Cameroon say.

These institutions are run mostly by companies and linked to a commercial model for training and technology demonstration and sale.


The training of government officials is as well an important aspect of the Chinese engagement in Africa. Over 10,000 are trained in China each year, many in agriculture. This far exceeds any training initiative of any western aid programme the officials said.

Challenges

The Chinese have not only trained Cameroon rice farmers but equally own rice plantations with many Cameroonians as their workers. Over ten years down the line since Cameroon partnered with China in production, transformation and trade of agricultural products especially rice, the project has not been without hiccups. Cameroon workers in most of the Chinese owned plantations say they are over worked for little pay.

 “Working in a Chinese plantation means running eight or ten hours nonstop under the sun and the rain for 1,000 Fcfa [1,5 euros] a day” says Zang Dieudonne a rice farmer in Nanga-Eboko.

This remuneration he says does not correspond to the minimum guaranteed wage in Cameroon, which is 28,216 Fcfa per month [about 43 euros].

They also complained of very strict laws for the workers in the field.

“Harvesting any crop is forbidden,” says a taxi driver who has worked for the Chinese firm for a short period. “If they catch you with some rice in your pocket, you are directly sent to the police and accused of theft,” says the former rice farm worker.

 But Sino Cam officials in Nganga Eboko reject the charges of exploitation.

 “We are still in the experimental phase and we are asking our workers to do more so that they may earn more, but they prefer to cheat us. They say they are here to make money – but they need to work to make the company grow,” Zhao, one of the coordinators in the Sino Cam rice plantation in Nanga Eboko.

Local government officials in the area however decry the non involvement of local government in the project.

“The running of a Chino-Cameroon rice farm project in our area is a good initiative. But the local government unfortunately is not part of the project. This has created lack of transparency and information flow  between the local population and the company and this is poisoning relationships between citizens,consumers and the company, says the mayor of Nanga Eboko, Romain Roland Eto

The urban association that defends the interests of farmers, ACDIC, says the non involvement of the local government in the project is dangerous and represents a breach in the rights of the local population.

“When land is sold to foreign buyers for agriculture projects without the involvement of the local government guarantee the interest of the indigenous population will be protected,” says Bernard Njonga, ACDIC President.

 But Chinese officials say everything has been done to protect the interest of the local population in all agriculture projects by China in Cameroon.

“China supports Cameroon's push for self-driven, sustainable agriculture and also supports and protects the interest of local farmers"  said Chinese Ambassador to Cameroon Wo Ruidi, at a cooperation signing agreement with the Cameroon government in 2014.

He added that the two sides should enhance people-to-people exchanges to deepen mutual understanding and cement friendship especially among the youths and women.

“China is willing to help Cameroon train more professionals for its social and economic development,” he said.

Building stronger farm organizations

Stakeholders in the rice sector in Africa pointed at the 3rd Africa Rice Congress held in the Yaounde-Cameroon in October 2015 that there was need to build a strong farmers organization in the continent to address the crucial element of funding for rice research, seed production in the continent.

“Prospects for increasing Africa's rice yields are enormous. We’re already doing well with the Maputo Declaration, allocating 10 percent of our national budgets to agriculture and a significant proportion of that is going to rice production. But we need a strong farmer’s organization to address the crucial issues of funding research, seed production and marketing,” said Gambia’s minister of agriculture, Dr. Solomon Owens, at the third Africa Rice Congress in Yaounde.

“The opportunities for Africa rice farmers are there. The land is there, the water is there, the farmers are prepared to increase their production. So, it’s for research to give the technologies, give the varieties and for the policymakers to come up with strong and bold policies and financing opportunities,” Owens said.

He cited the examples of countries in West Africa and Egypt that are expected to drive growth with a robust production recovery, and a target of 30 million tons by 2020.

Meanwhile, the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Rice Market Monitor predicts rice harvests across the continent that will exceed 27 million tons by 2017, a two-percent jump from  2015/2016,an indicator of gradual strides towards rice independence in the continent.

(This article has been produced thanks to China-Africa reporting Grant)