Large private agricultural projects and job creation: From discourse to reality. Case study in Sella Limba, Sierra Leone

Abstract

Large private agricultural projects are described by their promoters as “win-win” partnerships: investments supposedly make it possible to increase agricultural productivity in developing countries, and to create thousands of jobs in the industry. These arguments, which are used in Sierra Leone where the priority of the agricultural policy is to attract foreign capitals, rely on the conviction that lands occupied by large private agricultural projects are “under-farmed” or even “unused” and that, therefore, their opportunity cost is nil. However, where family farms are well-established, the differential between the jobs created and those destroyed must be examined carefully. This is what we propose to do in this article, by examining the case of an ethanol and electricity production unit relying on an industrial sugar cane plantation of more than 12 500 ha, in the centre of the country. By analysing family farming in a control region close to that of the project, we show that family farming supplanted by the project would enable more farm labourers to make a living than the number of jobs potentially created by the industrial production unit.