Paper short abstract:

This paper provides a comparative account of Brazil’s and China’s agricultural cooperation policies and practices in Africa. It analyses how engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular cooperation initiatives.

Paper long abstract:

Mozambique, a country undergoing important transformations driven by the recent discovery of mineral resources, is one of the top destinations of Chinese and Brazilian cooperation and investment in Africa. It therefore makes an interesting case for understanding the nature of 'new' development encounters, as well as analysing commonalities and differences between China and Brazil as 'emerging powers' in international development, often bundled together under the 'BRICS' label. This paper provides a comparative account of the policies and operational modalities characterising Brazilian and Chinese development cooperation. It analyses how the engagements are perceived and talked about, what drives them and what formal and informal relations are emerging at the level of particular cooperation initiatives. The paper draws on three experiences representing a variety of engagements and suggesting the increasingly blurred motivations shaping cooperation encounters: (i) ProSavana, Brazil's current flagship programme in Mozambique, which aims to transform the country's savannah land spreading along the Nacala corridor, drawing on Brazil's own experience in the Cerrado; (ii) the Chinese Agricultural Technology Demonstration Centre (ATDC) in the outskirts of the Mozambican capital; (iii) a private Chinese investment project on rice in the Xai-Xai irrigation scheme, which builds on a technical cooperation initiative. The extent to which observed dynamics on the ground suggest the emergence of similarities or distinctive patterns of cooperation by Brazil or China are discussed, paving the way for further investigation on the BRICS and their engagements in Africa.