Changing agro-food systems: The impact of big agro-investors on food rights: Case studies in Mozambique and Zambia

Abstract

This book presents case studies that offer some insights into the rapid process of change underway in African agro-food systems, and in Southern Africa in particular, within the context of land-based and agricultural investments. These testimonials were gathered as part of exploratory research aimed at investigating how increasing levels of investment are restructuring agro-food systems and the implications of these changes on how people produce and access food. Therefore, we do not claim to present conclusive evidence of the impact of agri-business on local agro-food systems in the region, but rather, we argue that increasing levels of land-based and agricultural investments in Mozambique and Zambia have led to the reconfiguring of the input supply framework, the reshaping of local farming systems and the restructuring of market infrastructure – what we characterise as agro-food systems. The increasing levels of investment are affecting different people in different ways. The case studies presented in this book show the wider impact of these investments on rural livelihoods, household food security and local food environments.