Local farmers will be priced,squeezed and crushed out of the market. It is not efficiency, it is a planned corporate takeover via WTO, UPOV, WIPO, free trade agreements and now the New Alliance to fill in the niggling gaps and throw in some development money which would far outweigh the corporate profits from this deal. That is the local focus of these corporations.

This deal makes WTO TRIPS Agreement look benevolent wherein it ‘allows’ countries to exclude plants and animals from patentability but must choose some form of protection. Developing Countries and Least Developed Countries have an extended deadline for this but the New Alliance is busy to make money and can’t wait!

More efficient farm is desperately required in Africa (and much of Southern Asia) and small lone farmers and communities are not equipped to do farming efficicently nor will they ever be in all likelihood. Some equivalent of enclosure and professionalisation has to happen for farming to become modern and efficient. As it is much of Africa’s agriculture has lower than possible yields, is highly inefficient and vast swathes of food is wasted during production and transport. If we increased the productivity of farming and decrease the numbers working on it we then have lots of people who can get jobs doing other stuff and move to the cities and do productive things.