Burning Cane: Sugar, Land, Work and Health in Southern Mozambique
| Dates: | 5 February 2014 |
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| Times: | 16:30 - 18:00 |
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| What is it: | Seminar |
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| Organiser: | School of Environment, Education and Development |
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| How much: | Free |
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The concept ‘land-grabbing’ focuses political attention on the appropriation of land, but attention needs to be given as well to the conditions under which people work in capitalist agriculture, both on large-farms and estates and on smallholder outgrower schemes in which small farmers retain, or even receive, rights to land. This paper focuses on sugar-growing practices in one particular area of southern Mozambique where Tongaat-Hulett has taken over a formerly state-owned plantation and also introduced a contract-growing scheme. It asks why pre-harvest cane-burning endures, despite the fact that it is in the long-term unhealthy for workers, communities and the land itself. It shows why the question is not resolved by technical options – mechanised versus manual harvesting or bio-fuels vs. sugar – but requires a broad transformation of the ways that agricultural wage-labour and the health of rural communities are conceived and organised.
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G7
Humanities Bridgeford Street
Manchester
