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CALL FOR PAPERS

South- South Cooperation

India, Africa and Food Security: Between the Summits

January 10-11, 2011

In his closing remarks during India-Africa Summit in April 2008, the President of United Republic of
Tanzania and Chairperson of the African Union Jakaya Mrisho Kikwete said one of the major
concerns for Africa is food security and urged India to invest in capacity building in the agricultural
sector. He stated, “Currently Africa's agriculture is peasant agriculture, traditional, plagued with
low levels of production. If we are able to increase productivity in African agriculture, Africa would
not only be able to feed itself, but have huge surpluses to sell to the world. India has the
technology and the skills, which if made available to Africa; certainly it will help implement the
African Green Revolution” (India- Africa Summit, 2008).

The widening levels of inequality and poverty globally, coupled with sharp increases in the prices of
agricultural products have aggravated the challenges of food security. Moreover, the diversion of
land for the production of fuels (bio-fuel) in the face of environmental degradation as a result of
climate change has aggravated the food crisis The recent debilitating economic slowdown has
adversely impacted the situation on the African continent that is faced with a largely unsuccessful
approach to agricultural production and food security and thus heavily reliant on imports and aid to
meet its food requirements.

The New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD) has identified agriculture as a ‘sustainable
solution to hunger and poverty in Africa’ and emphasized the role of agriculture as an ‘engine of
growth.’ African countries are thereby seeking to become self sufficient in food grain production by
2015. The continent has vast stretches of cultivable lands that can collectively cater to local and
global demands. Indian engagement in Africa is significant in this context, particularly in the area of
capacity building of the agricultural sector in Africa. The Indian green revolution in 1960s made her
a food-surplus country and can be adapted on the continent. Given its good track record India can
provide low cost appropriate technology to increase agricultural productivity for food and raw
materials in Africa.

The Indian engagement for capacity building in the agriculture and related sectors is perceptible.
The 2008 India-Africa summit facilitated this engagement at multi- levels- government to
government, public-private partnerships and at the level of civil society and academia. In the
aftermath of the summit, India has become a key source of financing and concessional lines of credit
for agricultural projects in Africa. Instance may be cited of Tanzania that received a line of credit of
US $40 million for financing the export of agricultural equipments in 2008-2009. Building close
institutional links and developing a process to share the knowledge in agro-processing and related
sectors will also help add value to agricultural products.

While analyzing the current scenario prospects of closer interactions and related challenges too
need to be looked at. How can we strengthen genuine attempts to promote South-South
Cooperation and avoid neo-colonial manoeuvres for exploiting African resources for India’s own

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benefits? How can we strengthen a new and different cooperation model for South-South
cooperation and avoid repeating the same mistakes of traditional cooperation?

The interregnum period between the 2008 India-Africa Summit and forthcoming 2011 Summit
provides us with an opportunity to deliberate on all these issues.

Within this broad remit we expect papers that will explore key areas related to Indian engagement
in African agricultural and related sectors. The themes include:

• Indian private companies (case studies)

• Exim Bank’s engagement
• Indian public sector engagement
• Food security, democracy and good governance
• Role of civil society and media
• Role of regional organizations
• Food security and gender
• Food security and conflict
• Importing Green Revolution
• Bio-fuels and Food security
• Need for a legal framework
• Capacity building and technology transfer
• India-Africa South-South Cooperation framework

The conference will be of an interdisciplinary nature.

Empirical case studies are particularly welcome.

Abstracts of about 500 words and a CV of two pages with contact details should be sent as a single
word file to: conferenceafrica@gmail.com

Funding: Nordic Africa Institute, Uppsala (Sweden) and UNDP Special Unit for South-South
Cooperation, New York are our academic partners. The Ministry of External Affairs, Government of
India has extended financial support for the conference.

Local hospitality will be provided to all the participants for the duration of the conference. Limited
number of travel grants will be made available on request.

Important dates

Submission of abstracts - 15 October 2010

Notification of acceptance- 17 October 2010

Submission of completed papers – 10 December 2010

All queries should be addressed to Ms. Sudha Tiwari, Research Investigator, at:
conferenceafrica@gmail.com

Conference coordinator

Renu Modi (Director), Centre for African Studies

University of Mumbai, India