almunjama 1 year ago

@2.22 "this was not land, it wasn't gazetted, it was a swamp"..Really?? All land in Kenya are definitely gazetted. Land can either be Public, Private, Communal or government trust. Wetlands are actually protected and public owned with the local authority being the custodian.

Need info on Bushco crony company -- Dominion Group -- Calvin Burgess --

Edited on Fri Jan-06-06 04:00 PM by hedda_foil

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=364x69236

This is really interesting! Looks like a *co crony company is doing a land grab in Kenya. I got this request from a friend who works for an international aid agency.

Hi! Do you think it might be possible to ask the DU people to do research into The Dominion Group, an Oklahoma company owned by Calvin Burgess? They are doing some nasty stuff in Kenya, and they are very much in bed with the Bush administration, but I can’t find anything negative on them during my preliminary search. Perhaps DU can come up with something.

Dominion's website is http://www.domgp.com/main.html

They look like real slime buckets at the least, but there's probably a lot more involved under the surface.

Who's behind the land grabs?

by GRAIN on Oct 16, 2012

1. WHOS BEHIND THE land grabs? A look at some of the people pursuing or supporting large farmland grabs around the world GRAIN, 2012
2. Proﬁles of some of the people pursuing or supporting large farmland grabs around the world Jean-Claude Gandur, Addax (Switzerland) Jose Minaya, TIAA-CREF (US) Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, Karuturi Global (India) Calvin Burgess, Dominion Farms (US) C "Siva" Sivasankaran, Siva Group (India) Neil Crowder, Chayton Capital (UK) Michael Barton, Farm Lands of Africa (UK) Meles Zenawi (Ethiopia) Eduardo Elsztain, Cresud (Argentina)Susan Payne, Emergent Asset Management (Canada)Dr. Hatim Mukhtar, Foras International (Saudi Arabia) Theo De Jager, AgriSA (South Africa) The World Bank Group Antonio L. Tiu, Agrinurture (Philippines) Hou Weigui, ZTE (China)
3. Jean-Claude GandurOwner of Addax Bioenergy "I don’t feel guilty of doing anything immoral”
4. In April 2012, farmers in Sierra Leone gathered for an assembly of communities affected by large-scale foreign land investments. Manyparticipants came to speak about a 10,000-ha sugar-cane project operated by Addax Bioenergy, an ethanol company owned by Swissbillionaire Jean-Claude Gandur. "We’ve been evicted from our farmland without compensation," said Zainab Sesay, a womanfarmer from the project area. "Now I don’t have a farm. Starvation is killing people. We have to buy rice to survive because we dontgrow our own now," said Zainab Kamara, another farmer displaced by the Addax project.In his Geneva headquarters, surrounded by his impressive collection of art and antiquities, Gandur tells a different story. He explainsto reporters that his project complies with the social and environmental standards set by the African Development Bank, the WorldBank’s International Finance Corporation and the European Union. Indeed, over half of the companys project costs are met bydevelopment banks. "That’s why I don’t feel guilty of doing anything immoral," says Gandur.Gandur built his fortune, estimated at US$2 billion, trading commodities and buying up oil concessions in Nigeria and other Africancountries. In 2009, he sold his interests in the oil business and turned his attention to the continents farmlands. Fuel is still his focus,but now it’s ethanol, not petroleum.For his ﬁrst big project, Gandur selected Sierra Leone, a war-ravaged country where malnutrition affects one third of thepopulation. Its a controversial spot to grow sugar cane for the production of ethanol for export. Not only has the companystakeover of 10,000 ha of "fertile and well-watered" land and forest displaced local food production, its also taking away access towater for farmers living downstream. The companys sugar-cane plantation will use 26% of Sierra Leones largest river ﬂow duringthe driest months, February to April.Gandur says that his ethanol project, due to become fully operational in 2013, is "a good way to bring back agriculture in Africa." Butgood for whom? The Swiss group Brot für Alle carried out a basic analysis of the companys numbers and found that Addax wouldtake home an annual return of US$53 million, about 98% of the value added by the project. The companys 2,000 or so low-paidworkers would get only 2% of the value, while the landowners who leased their land to the company would receive a mere 0.2% ofthe value added. All told, says Brot für Alle, the project will provide less than US$1 per month to each person affected by the project. Jean-Claude Gandur
5. Friends of Gandur:Swedish Development Fund (Swedfund): In December 2011, Addax Bionergy announced thatSwedfund had become a major shareholder of its mother company, the Addax & Oryx Group.Netherlands Development Finance Company (FMO): Along with the African DevelopmentBank and several other development banks, FMO provides debt ﬁnancing to Addax Bioenergy and is amajor shareholder in its mother company, the Addax & Oryx Group.Going Further: • Action for Large-scale Land Acquisition Transparency (ALLAT), a network of civil society organisations and landowner and user associations in Sierra Leone, created to monitor land investments throughout the country and to sensitize communities (allat@greenscenery.org) • Brot für Alles report "Land grabbing: the dark side of sustainable investments" Jean-Claude Gandur
6. Jose MinayaManaging Director of the Teachers Insurance &Annuity Association – College Retirement EquitiesFund (TIAA-CREF)"Its too risky for a company like TIAA–CREF to go into these areas [such as Africa] becausewere sure going to be in the headlines a year from the time we make the investment."
7. Slave labour, theft of indigenous lands, destruction of forests and savannas – these are some of the hallmarks of Brazils sugar-caneindustry. Now, thanks in part to an inﬂux of foreign cash, the industry is booming as never before. Over the past ten years, the areadevoted to sugar cane in Brazil has nearly doubled, from 4.8 to 8.1 million ha, with at least 1,000 ha of land converted to sugar-caneplantations every day. Most of this expansion is happening in the countrys , a biodiverse savanna that is home to around 160,000plant and animal species, many of them endangered. Brazilian workers are paying the price too: the industry is one of the mostdangerous, exploitative and poorly paid sectors in which to work. And, as sugar cane expands, land is taken out of food productioninto the hands of Brazils sugar barons, in a country where 3% of the population already holds almost two-thirds of the countrysarable land.Teachers and professors in the US may not know it, but their retirement savings are being used to proﬁt from this expansion ofsugar-cane plantations in Brazil. Under the helm of its Managing Director, Jose Minaya, New York-based TIAA–CREF, the biggestfund manager of retirement schemes for US teachers and professors, has channelled hundreds of millions of dollars into a fund thatacquires Brazilian farmland and converts it into sugar-cane plantations.The fund is called Radar Propriedades Agrícolas. It was launched by Brazils largest sugar-cane producer, Cosan, to identify propertiesin Brazil that it could acquire cheaply, convert mainly into sugar-cane plantations, and then sell at a proﬁt within a few years. Cosan,which owns 19% of the fund, manages the funds investments and retains ﬁrst rights to acquire lands before Radar puts them on themarket. The other 81% of the fund is owned by TIAA–CREF through its Brazilian holding company, Mansilla. At the end of 2010,Radar had spent US$440 million to acquire more than 180 farms in Brazil, covering 84,000 ha, with plans to spend another US$800million in the near future to acquire 60 more farms, covering 340,000 ha.TIAA–CREFs farmland portfolio extends well beyond Brazil. Since 2007, the company has spent US$2.5 billion taking over farmsaround the world, turning hundreds of thousands of hectares in Australia, Poland, Romania and the US into corporate farms throughits subsidiary the Westchester Group.TIAA–CREFs motto, however, is "Financial Services for the Greater Good" and, in 2011, it joined seven European institutionalinvestors to launch the Farmland Principles, a set of ﬁve principles committing signatories not to engage in farmland deals that harmthe environment or violate labour or human rights, or land and resource rights. Experience suggests that TIAA–CREF can bepressured to divest from the global farmland grab. It has already pulled out of investments in companies operating in Darfur, and isnow the target of a nationwide campaign to get it to divest from companies that proﬁt from the Israeli occupation of Palestinianlands. Jose Minaya
8. Friends of Minaya:AP2: The Swedish National Pension Funds second vehicle, AP2, sunk €177 million (US$240.7million) into TIAA–CREFs Westchester Group in 2011 for the acquistion of farmland.Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec: In May 2012, Canadas second-largest pensionfund manager announced a C$250-million investment in a global farmland fund managed by TIAA–CREF, in which AP2 and the British Columbia Investment Management Corporation(bcIMC) also participating.Royal Dutch Shell: In 2010 it set up a US$12-billion, 50:50 ethanol joint venture with Cosan thatRadar says will increase its opportunities for farmland investments.Going further: • Brazils Comissão Pastoral da Terra • Brazils Landless Rural Workers Movement/Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra (MST) • US Food Sovereignty Alliance • US campaign to stop TIAA–CREF from investing in companies that proﬁt from the Israeli occupation • Carlos Vinicius Xavier, Fábio T. Pitta and Maria Luisa Mendonça, "A monopoly in Ethanol production in Brazil: The Cosan–Shell merger", Milieudefensi and TNI, 2011. Jose Minaya
9. Sai Ramakrishna KaruturiCEO and Founder of Karuturi Global Ltd "What Karuturi is doing is what Africa needs, wants and deserves."
10. When people talk of land grabs in Africa, a name that crops up often is "Karuturi". Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi, Indias "King ofRoses", made his fortune farming roses in East Africa for European markets. Now hes ploughing those proﬁts into his next bigAfrican project: food production.Karuturi has huge ambitions. He wants to set up farming operations on more than 1 million ha, mainly in eastern and southernAfrica, to produce maize, rice, sugar cane and palm oil. "In 5–10 years time I would like to be seen and compared with peers such asCargill or ADM or the Bunges of the world," he says. Hes already taken control of 311,700 ha in Ethiopia, and is negotiating foranother 370,000 ha in Tanzania. Plans are also in train for a farm project in the Republic of Congo, and fruit and vegetable farms inSudan, Mozambique and Ghana.Karuturi calls Africas farmlands "green gold". Its easy to see why. For every hectare he puts under rice production on his farm inGambela, Ethiopia, he expects US$660 in proﬁt per year. His company will have to pay only US$46 per hectare per year for the land,labour and water it uses.But Karuturi’s skill as a farmer is questionable. His ﬁrst maize harvest in Gambela was destroyed by a ﬂood that overwhelmed hiscanal system, causing US$15 million-worth of damage and requiring a further US$15 million for reinforcement. Unable to bring allthe lands hes leased into production on time, he has tried to sub-let chunks to Indian farmers on a revenue-sharing basis. This hascaused problems with the Ethiopian government. When several hundred Indians arrived at Addis Ababa airport at the end of 2011,ostensibly as machine operators for the Karuturi farm, the Ethiopian Government turned them away.Karuturis operations are also deeply entangled in land conﬂicts, especially in Gambela. According to a 2012 report by Human RightsWatch, the Ethiopian Government is forcibly relocating 70,000 indigenous people in western Gambela to new villages that lackadequate food, farmland, healthcare, or educational facilities, in order to make way for large-scale agricultural projects of foreigninvestors, including Karuturi. The report said that crops belonging to local Anuak communities were cleared without consent tomake way for the Karuturi operations, and that residents of Ilea, a village of over 1,000 people within Karuturis lease area, were toldby the Ethiopian government that they would be moved in 2012 as part of its "villagisation programme". Karuturi, however, deniesany connection between his companys activities and the governments villagisation programme. He says the report is "hogwash" and"a completely jaundiced western vision". He even denies that the villagisation programme exists. Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi
11. Friends of Karuturi:Djibouti: Signed a contract for Karuturi to supply it with 40,000 tonnes of food per year atinternational market prices.Government of India: Funds Karuturi through the Exim Bank and Infrastructure Leasing &Financial Services Limited.John Deer Co.: Supplies Karuturi with tractors for its operations.World Bank: Karuturi is in ﬁnal negotiations with its Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency forpolitical risk insurance.Going further: • Anywaa Survival Organisation, a UK-based group supporting the Anywaa people of Gambela, Ethiopia • Human Rights Watch report, "Waiting here for Death: Forced Displacement and Villagization in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region" • La Via Campesina South Asia Sai Ramakrishna Karuturi
12. Calvin BurgessCEO, Dominion Farms "I disagree when people say, Oh, you have to preserve the local culture. If you preserve it, people will starve, and you wont have a culture to preserve."
13. Calvin Burgess moved to the US from Canada in 1976 and immediately got into the construction business. He soon built up asmall empire, involved in everything from real estate to prisons, Mexican sock factories to pig farms. But in his late 50s Burgess felt itwas time to do something "signiﬁcant" instead of just "living a good life and dying a rich guy". So, inspired by the stories of a woman athis church who had spent time in Kenya, he decided that he would go there too and see how he could make a difference. "God hasplans for peoples lives," says Burgess, "and I thought that maybe this was part of His plan for me."Burgess set up shop in western Kenya, in a place called the Yala Swamp. His idea: to build Africas largest rice farm – Dominion Farms –on 7,000 ha of land he acquired under a 25-year renewable lease agreement. But there was one problem. Thousands of people live,farm and raise livestock on the same land and depend on the same water source. Dominion Farms occupies 40% of the Yala Swamp,but the dam that the company built to irrigate its rice ﬁelds has ﬂooded a much larger area and made it practically impossible for thelocal communities to raise livestock. Local residents also say that Burgesss project destroyed their access to potable water, and thatthe regular aerial spraying of fertilisers and agrochemicals makes them and their animals sick.For all this, they have seen little in return – a few hundred poorly paid jobs, and compensation packages of about US$60 per home forthose who left. No wonder the locals are upset and demanding that Burgess and his company pack up and leave. In August 2011,Burgess ﬁled a report with the police claiming that protestors had made threats on his life. "When you try to help these people allthey do is complain," says Burgess.Undaunted by the opposition in Kenya, Burgess is now expanding into Nigeria, where he has acquired 30,000 ha in Taraba State, withthe backing of former President Olusegun Obasanjo. In 2009, Burgess also announced that he had found investors to replicate hisKenyan farm model in Liberia on 17,000 ha. Calvin Burgess
14. Friends of Burgess:Olusegun Obasanjo: The former President of Nigeria calls Burgess "a friend of Nigeria", and hasbeen intimately involved in helping Burgess to secure land in the country.Going further: • Kick Dominion Farms out of Yala campaign: facebook ; online petition • Good Fortune (ﬁlm) • United Small and Medium Farmers Associations of Nigeria Calvin Burgess
15. C "Siva" SivasankaranCEO, Siva Group “God stopped manufacturing land. The available land is at a premium.” - V Srinivasan, Sivasankaran’s close aide and CEO of Siva Ventures.
16. C. Sivasankaran is one of Indias richest men, with a net worth of more than US$4 billion. He made most of his fortunepioneering sales of discounted PCs, mobile phone networks and broadband internet services in India. Sivasankaran keeps a lowpublic proﬁle and rarely gives public interviews. He is said to hold a "big bang approach to life" and is known to travel the worldusing his large ﬂeet of private planes and yachts, staying in the most expensive presidential suites.Lately, Sivasankaran has developed an interest in farmland. He started by taking major stakes in several Indian companies that havebeen acquiring farmland overseas: a 12% stake in Ruchi Soya, which has 50,000 ha on long-term lease in Ethiopia; a 10% stake in KSOils, which has 56,000 ha for palm oil in Indonesia; and a 3% stake in Karuturi Global, which has a 300,000-ha land lease inEthiopia.Palm oil appears to be Sivasankarans favourite commodity. In 2010, he bought a minority stake in Feronia, a Canada-basedcompany that acquired 100,000 ha for palm-oil and soybean production in the DR Congo, and then set up a joint venture withLondons Equatorial Palm Oil, taking 50% control of the companys 170,000 ha in Liberia. Sivasankaran is now moving more directlyinto the ﬁeld. He set up Biopalm Energy, a subsidiary of his Singapore-based Siva Group, and quickly snatched up 200,000 ha inCameroon and 80,000 ha in Sierra Leone to produce palm oil for export to India, where it will be reﬁned and sold."I’m a community land user, I live from farming," says one woman from the Pujehun district of Sierra Leone, where Siva has takenland. "But now the investors, this Biopalm company [SIVA Group], has come and the Paramount Chief gives all the land away, eventhe land I use for farming, for collecting ﬁrewood, for native herbs [medicines], for everything. Now it’s all gone. I have nothing."All told, Siva has his hands on 756,000 ha of farmland, 670,000 ha of it in Africa. C. Sivasankaran
17. Friends of Siva:Singapore - provides a tax and ﬁnancial haven for the registration of the Siva Group.Going further: • Action for Large-Scale Land Acquisition Transparency (ALLAT), a network of civil society organisations and landowner and user associations in Sierrra Leone created to monitor land investments throughout the country and to sensitise communities (allat@greenscenery.org). • La Via Campesina South Asia C. Sivasankaran
18. Neil CrowderCEO, Chayton Capital "Our goal is to feed Africa"
19. Neil Crowder, who describes himself as "a well-educated US citizen who four years ago would not have been able to locateZambia on a map", left Goldman Sachs to co-found Chayton Capital, a private equity fund which is spending US$300 million inagribusiness ventures in six African countries. The test case is Zambia, where it acquired a 14-year lease on 20,000 ha in Mkushi.It intends to aggregate its lands into a single operation, called "Chobe Agrivision", within a 50-kilometre radius.Crowder says that his companys legacy will be to "teach Africans the latest farming techniques", before they exit with an "18%cash on cash" return on investment."I dont want to defend land grabs and were certainly not doing that," says Crowder. "My view is that Africa needs to moderniseits agriculture."But local farmers say that they have yet to see any beneﬁt from Chayton Capitals farm or the other commercial farms in thearea. "So far they dont help," says Brighton Marcokatebe, a farmer from the nearby village of Asa.If discontent among local farmers should one day boil up into demands for the land under Chaytons control, Crowder has gothis bases covered. "The World Bank has underwritten our assets for political risk," explains Crowder. "We pay a premium forinsurance and they guarantee against expropriation. Our political risk insurance protects us against civil disturbance." Neil Crowder
20. Friends of Crowder:World Bank: Its Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency provides Chayton Capitalwith US$50 million in political risk insurance for its farm holdings in in Zambia andBotswana.PSG Group: The South African ﬁnancial corporations subsidiary, Zeder Investments,purchased a 96% stake in Chayton Africa in March 2012.Mauritius: Provides Chayton with a tax and ﬁnancial haven for its Chayton AtlasAgricultural Company.Going further: • GRAIN, "World Bank report on land grabbing: Beyond the smoke and mirrors" • Zambian Land Alliance Neil Crowder
21. Michael BartonFounder and Chief FinancialOfﬁcer of Farm Lands of Africa "Farm Lands of Africas programme represents a major breakthrough for the democratically- elected government of the Republic of Guinea in their priority plans for food self-sufﬁciency."
22. Michael Barton got a taste for the proﬁts that can be made in farmland during his ﬁve years as Chairman of New HiberniaInvestments Ltd, a company launched by UK real-estate player Mark Keegan to buy farms in Argentina. When Keegans company sold itsfarms at a hefty proﬁt in 2008, he and Barton turned their attention to Africa.They enlisted the help of a former high-ranking ofﬁcer in the British army, General Sir Redmond Watt, and Cherif Haidara, a Malianlobbyist intimate with West Africas inner circles of power. Their focus turned to Guinea, a country controlled by a corrupt dictatorshipwith millions of hectares of agricultural land. Haidara, who was put in charge of Guineas mining funds in October 2009, had alreadyhelped the UK company Sovereign Mines of Guinea, to which Keegan is connected, to get hold of ﬁve gold concessions covering a totalof 3,600 sq km in the countrys gold-rich metallogenic belts.Guinea was in a political mess at the time. Lansana Conté, the countrys dictator since 1984, had died in December 2008, and was soonreplaced by a military junta. The junta held on to power from 24 December 2008 to 21 December 2010, going through two Presidentsin the process. It was during this time that Bartons team struck its deals for farmland.On 16 September 2010, with Brigadier-General Sékouba Konaté in power, Barton, by way of a newly created company called Farm Landsof Guinea (now Farm Lands of Africa – FLA), signed two deals with Guineas Ministry of Agriculture. These deals gave Land & Resources,a subsidiary of FLA incorporated in Guinea and 10% owned by the Government of Guinea, a 99-year lease on more than 100,000 ha ofagricultural land. Under a subsequent protocol, signed on 25 October 2010, while Konaté was still in power, Bartons company agreed tosurvey and map roughly 1.5 million ha to "prepare it for third-party development under 99-year leases." FLA maintains that, in return,the Ministry of Agriculture gave it exclusive marketing rights over the lands "with a commission of 15% being payable on closed sales."When combined, the three deals give FLA control of 1,608,215 ha, or 11% of Guineas agricultural land. Late in 2011, FLA reported thatits representatives had been prospecting for land in Sierra Leone and The Gambia, and that it had identiﬁed 10,000 ha in Malis Ofﬁce duNiger with that countrys Minister of Agriculture. Michael Barton
23. Friends of Barton:Craven House Capital: London-based ﬁnancial ﬁrm, formerly called AIMInvestments, bought US$1 million-worth of FLA common shares in November 2011.British Virgin Islands: Provides FLA with a tax and ﬁnancial haven for itsoperations.Going further: • Coalition Coalition pour la Protection du Patrimoine Génétique Africain (COPAGEN) (contact: francis.ngang@inadesfo.net) Michael Barton
24. Meles ZenawiThe late Prime Minister of Ethiopia "There is no land grab and there will be no land grab. Indian companies should not be constrained by this loose talk."
25. Meles Zenawi and the Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) have ruled Ethiopia since they came topower in the ﬁrst elections held after Ethiopias civil war in 1995. Zenawis power base was in the North and, throughout hisrule, there have been tensions with the different peoples of the southern regions of the country, including Oromia, Gambelaand the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region. To maintain their power in these provinces, Zenawi and hisministers exercised close control over local authorities, appointing, removing, transferring or even jailing personnel. Zenawialso suppressed dissent by censoring the media, imprisoning journalists, banning opposition parties and communityorganisations, manipulating elections and deploying the army and police to harass critics of his policies. From March toDecember 2011, Zenawi had more than 100 opposition politicians and 8 journalists arrested under a catch-all anti-terror lawthat threatens up to 20-year jail terms for those who merely publish a statement that prosecutors believe could indirectlyencourage terrorism. Ethiopia has exiled more journalists than any other country in the world. According to AmnestyInternational: "Individuals and publications who hold different opinions, represent different political parties or attempt toprovide independent commentary on political developments, are no longer tolerated in Ethiopia."It is in this context that Zenawi transferred huge areas of land in the southern half of the country to foreign and domesticinvestors for large-scale agricultural projects. His government identiﬁed 4 million ha for this programme, 1 million more forbiofuels, and another 5 million for sugar-cane plantations. By the end of 2011, 800,000 ha had been leased to foreign investors.And to prepare the terrain, Zenawi built dams, forcibly displaced communities, and used the army to quell opposition violently.Zenawis ruthless actions did not dampen his international support. Apart from the aid money that continues to ﬂow in fromthe US, Britain and other northern donors (around US$3 billion per year), Zenawi forged ever deeper relations with India,Saudi Arabia and China, who are eager to support their companies in getting their hands on Ethiopias farmland and otherresources. Zenawi died of natural causes on 20 August 2012, and the EPRDF has shown no sign of deviating from Zenawisland-grab legacy. Meles Zenawi
26. Friends of Zenawi:World Bank - Coordinates international donor assistance that is being used by the EthiopianGovernment for a villagisation programme that displaces people to make way for large-scale agriculturalprojects.Going further: • Anuak Justice Council • Anywaa Survival Organisation, a UK-based group supporting the Anywaa peoples of Gambela, Ethiopia. • Human Rights Watch report, "Waiting Here for Death’: Forced Displacement and ‘Villagization’ in Ethiopia’s Gambella Region” • Anyuak Media • Survival International has a letter writing campaign to support the Omo Valley tribes affected by large-scale agriculture projects Meles Zenawi
27. Eduardo ElsztainChairman of Cresud "Real assets are a real refuge for investors ... and gold and farmland are the best assets to be exposed to today and we are doing that in the best way we can"
28. "We used to have farms, and cows and fruit trees," says Sofía Gatica, a resident of the community of Ituzaingó,Argentina. "But they destroyed all that and planted genetically modiﬁed (GM) soybeans. Now, when they spray the soy,they also spray us."Soﬁa Gaticas daughter died at just three days old from kidney failure, caused by exposure to the agrotoxins sprayedon the soybean plantations that surround her community. The cancer rate in Ituzaingó is 40 times the nationalaverage. It is just one of the communities that has been devastated by Argentinas massive boom in soybeanproduction, which followed the introduction of Monsantos soybeans, genetically modiﬁed for resistance to theherbicide glyphosate. Each year, over 50 million gallons of agrotoxins are aerially sprayed on soybeans in Argentina.The pain for some has been a bonanza for others. One of the big winners from the soybean boom has been theArgentine businessman Eduardo Elsztain, the countrys largest farmland owner and one of its top producers ofGM soybeans.In the 1990s Elsztain was bankrolled by George Soros to purchase undervalued real estate in Argentina through hisfamily company IRSA. They quickly amassed millions, and decided to use some of the proﬁts to take over Cresud, acompany with about 20,000 ha of farmland. With another major cash injection from Soros and a public offering on theBuenos Aires stock exchange, Cresud expanded its landholdings dramatically. By the end of 1998 it owned 26 farmscovering 475,098 ha. When Soros sold his interest in Cresud and IRSA in 1999, Elsztain found other billionaire friendsto replace him, such as Wall Street hedge-fund operator Michael Steinhardt and Canadian tycoon Edgar Bronfman.Today Cresuds farmland holdings in Argentina total 628,000 ha, on which it produces mainly GM soybeans and cattle.The company also runs a feedlot operation in Patagonia through a joint venture with US-based Tyson, the worldslargest meat company. Elsztain is now aggressively exporting Argentinas soybean boom to neighbouring countries.Over the past few years, Cresuds subsidiaries have taken over 17,000 ha in Bolivia, 142,000 ha in Paraguay, and175,000 ha in Brazil, mainly for the production of soy. Cresuds current farmland holdings add up to 962,000 ha. Eduardo Elsztain
29. Friends of Elsztain:Cargill: The US multinational is one of the largest buyers of soybeans from Argentina.Heilongjiang Beidahuang Nongken Group: In June 2011, Chinas largest farmingcompany set up a joint venture with Cresud to buy land in Argentina and farm soybeansfor export to China.Going further: • Visit the farmlandgrab.org pages on Cresud • Sofía Gatica formed the Mothers of Ituzaingó with 16 others. In 2012 she received the Goldman Environmental Prize Eduardo Elsztain
30. Susan PayneCEO, Emergent Asset Management "Its like being a kid in a candy store. The opportunities are so immense, and the risks are far lower than people believe."
31. Susan Payne is a Canadian who cut her teeth at JP Morgan and Goldman Sachs before embarking on a quest to take overlarge swaths of fertile African farmland with her British husband David Murrin. Payne and Murrins UK company, EmergentAsset Management, launched their African Agricultural Land Fund in 2007, and has since acquired at least 30,000 ha in SouthAfrica, Zambia, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zimbabwe. They claim that it is the largest agricultural fund in Africa.Payne speaks regularly about the pioneering work shes doing investing in African farmland. Others might balk at the risksinvolved in taking over fertile land in African countries where hunger and land conﬂicts are abundant – and then bringing inwhite South Africans to run the farms. But Payne and those backing her, such as the Toronto Dominion Bank of Canada,expect a big pay-off. She says that investors in Emergent will get annual returns of around 25%.In October 2011, the husband-and-wife team announced that they were separating and dividing up Emergent. While Murrintook over Emergent Asset Management, Payne took over Emvest, the joint venture with South Africas RusselStone Group,which runs Emergents African Agriland Fund and its farming operations. Susan Payne
32. Friends of Payne:Toronto Dominion Bank of Canada - Emergents largestoutside investorVanderbilt University - the US universitys endowment fund isinvested in EmrgentGoing further: • Oakland Institutes resources and reports on Emergent • Vanderbilt Campaign for Fair Food Susan Payne
33. Dr. Hatim MukhtarCEO, Foras International Investment Company "This (700,000 ha rice project in West Africa) is among targets set by the Organisation of the Islamic Conference and the Islamic Chamber of Commerce and Industry to confront the food shortage crisis, increase agricultural output and improve rice productivity," - Foras
34. Hatim Mukhtar could one day be presiding over the worlds largest rice farm. His company, Foras International, is in themidst of implementing a plan to produce 7 million tonnes of rice on 700,000 ha of irrigated land in Africa. Foras started witha 2,000-ha pilot rice farm in Mauritania in 2008, then took a lease on 5,000 ha in Mali’s Ofﬁce du Niger, and signed aninterim agreement for 5,000 ha in Senegal, in the Senegal river valley. The pilot studies in Mali are now complete, and Forasis seeking to scale up its operations to 50,000–100,000 ha. In all three of these countries there have already been tenseconﬂicts over large-scale land grabs.Foras is still far from its target of 700,000 ha, but Mukhtar has recently signed a ﬂurry of deals that puts the company quitehigh in the ranks of global farm landlords. Since January 2010, Foras has taken 126,000 ha in Sudans Sennar State, along theBlue Nile, signed a memorandum of understanding with the government of Katsina State, Nigeria, for a US$100-millionagricultural project that will begin with a pilot farm on 1,000 ha, and started negotiations with the government of theRussian Republic of Tatarstan for 10,000 ha. It is also moving ahead with a US$22 million project to build a massive,vertically integrated poultry farm near Dakar, Senegal, that will produce 4.8 million birds per year. Two companies thatMukhtar met at a business forum in Sarajevo have been brought in to develop its African poultry and cattle projects.Behind Mukhtar stand some of the most powerful families and institutions of the Gulf States. Foras is a private company, butit operates as the investment arm of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), an intergovernmental organisationwith 57 member states that calls itself "the collective voice of the Muslim world". Its main shareholders and founders arethe Islamic Development Bank and several conglomerates from the Gulf region, including Sheikh Saleh Kamel and his DallahAl Barakah Group, the Saudi Bin Laden Group, the National Investment Company of Kuwait and Nasser Kharaﬁ, the worlds48th-richest person and owner of the Americana Group. Hatim Mukhtar
35. Friends of Foras:Islamic Development Bank (IDB) - main shareholder in FORASOrganization of the Islamic Conference (OIC) - FORAS ispart of the OICGoing further: • GRAIN: "Saudi investors poised to take control of rice production in Senegal and Mali?" • Alliance paysanne « Stop aux accaparement des terres » Hatim Mukhtar
36. Congo AgricultureTheo De JagerVice-President AgriSA "Forty-ﬁve per cent of the worlds underutilised land and water resources are on this continent. So if we dont grab the opportunities, someone else is bound to do it."
37. Theo de Jager, the vice-president of South Africas largest commercial farmers’ union, AgriSA, is also the chairman of itsland affairs committee. So hes been deeply involved in his countrys highly charged land reform, and has even lost a farm ofhis own in the process. But recently, De Jager has been doing some different work for his organisation: travelling aroundAfrica looking for land that he and other South African farmers can acquire, on a large scale.De Jagers ﬁrst success was in Congo-Brazzaville. The government promised him and his fellow farmers as much land as theymight want throughout the country, along with freedom from import duties, taxes and restrictions on the repatriation ofproﬁts. De Jager and about 15 other South Africans set up a company called Congo Agriculture, and negotiated a contractwith the government for 80,000 ha. The ﬁrst 48,000 ha were divided into 30 farms for the participating South Africanfarmers. De Jager says that hes already picked out plots for himself, and intends to produce oil palm, timber and cattle.But Congo could well be just a ﬁrst step. As of early 2010, AgriSA has been engaged in negotiations for land deals with thegovernments of 22 African countries, including Egypt, Morocco, Mozambique, Sudan, Zambia, and even Libya.De Jager and most of the South African farmers involved in these deals do not intend to live on the land they acquire. Theywill hire managers and oversee their businesses from afar. It is not so much their knowledge of farming that distinguishesthem from the small farmers in the countries where they are acquiring lands, but their access to capital and integration incorporate food chains. De Jager himself moonlights as a real-estate agent; he started farming only in 1997. Before that hewas an agent in the National Intelligence Service, serving as "chief information co-ordinator" in the ofﬁce of the StatePresident during the apartheid-era rule of P.W. Botha. Theo de Jager
38. Friends of De Jager:Government of South Africa: Supports AgriSA through the negotiation of bilateralinvestment treaties with the governments of countries where AgiSA is acquiring land.Government of China: In 2010 AgriSa and China began discussions for a partnershipunder which AgriSA would help Chinese companies to identify farmland in Africa.Standard Bank: Along with ABSA Bank and Standard Chartered, is said to beconsidering funding AgriSAs foreign farmland projects.Going further: • Ligue Panafricaine du Congo - UMOJA (LPC-U) • Landless Peoples Movement (South Africa) • Ruth Halls paper "The next Great Trek? South African commercial farmers move north" Theo de Jager
39. The World Bank Group "Its like the California gold rush. The initial investors are not the most savory characters in the world." - World Banks former Agribusiness Team Leader John Lamb speaking in 2010 about the global land grab.
40. The food price crisis of 2007–8 was a public relations disaster for the World Bank. Just months before prices hit their peak, theBank was still telling governments that food self-sufﬁciency was a foolish goal. But then the governments of some major food-exporting countries, worried about the needs of their people, began to close their borders. Food prices spiked and riots ﬂared,from Yaoundé to Mexico City, in countries that had followed the Banks advice about the efﬁciency of global markets and the perilsof supporting local agriculture. With countries like Malaysia bartering for food, and the number of hungry people and the proﬁts ofthe grain trade’s giants at all time highs, who could trust the Bank any longer?Nevertheless, the Bank stuck to its old tune: more export agriculture, more foreign investment. It soon got its wish, in spades.At the height of the food crisis, a global farmland grab erupted. All the foreign investment that the Bank had for decades promisedwould be the nemesis of poverty and food insecurity was now ﬂooding into countries all over the planet. But the glaringpredicament for the Bank was that the money was chasing farmland occupied by peasants and pastoralists, to produce food cropsfor export from countries already coping with severe food insecurity. It was hard to spin this as a solution to the food crisis,espcially when the UN Food and Agricultural Organisations Director General, Jacques Diouf, had already warned of "neo-colonialism", and even The Economist was calling it a "land grab".But the Bank decided to give it a try anyway. Its answer: a set of "principles for responsible agroinvestment", and a global report and"knowledge centre" that it hoped would cast the Bank as the objective authority on the issue.Few were fooled. The Banks principles were immediately denounced by social movements, farmers organisations and NGOs as adistraction from real action that could stop the land grabs. Its eagerly awaited report was a ﬂop, with hardly any new data to add towhat was already known, and with a wishy-washy embrace of the "win–win" potential of "large-scale land acquisitions" in the face ofthe damning evidence detailed in the Bank’s own report.Plus, as many groups pointed out, the Bank itself is a land grabber. Through both its Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency(MIGA) and its International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Bank has directly invested in companies gobbling up farmland in theSouth. Among the IFCs dealings are a US$75-million investment in the Altima One World Agricultural Fund, which has been buyingup vast areas of farmland in Latin America, Africa and Eastern Europe and converting it to soybean monoculture, and a US$40-million "risk participation" in ﬁnancing to the Export Trading Group, which has acquired over 300,000 ha in Africa. MIGA hasprovided political risk insurance to several companies grabbing farmland in Africa, including the UKs Chayton Capital, acquiring landin southern Africa, and Unifruit, acquiring land in Ethiopia.The Bank doesnt seem to understand why it has been the focus of so much of the opposition to land grabs. It is just "helpingsmallholders catch the wave of rising interest in farmland," says the Banks land policy specialist Klaus Deininger World Bank
41. Friends of the World Bank:Governments: the World Bank is run by its shareholders, which are governments. The countries with mostvoting power are the US (15.85%), Japan (6.84%), China (4.42%), Germany (4.00%), the United Kingdom(3.75%), France (3.75%), India (2.91%), Russia (2.77%), Saudi Arabia (2.77%) and Italy (2.64%).Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR): The World Bank providesthe CGIAR with US$50 million a year in completely unrestricted funds. Some of the CGIAR research centreshave developed connections with companies pursuing large-scale farmland grabs.Going further: • World Bank section at farmlandgrab.org • Friends of the Earth Internationals campaign to stop land grabbing has a focus on land grabs in Uganda in which the World Bank has been involved. World Bank
42. Antonio L. TiuCEO of Agrinurture Inc "Improve the agriculture sector in Mindanao, make the farmers there become productive and nobody will take up arms anymore."
43. In March 2012, Chinas ambassador to the Philippines was in central Luzon cutting a ribbon at a new hybrid ricedemonstration farm. This was not a simple case of international cooperation. The farm is owned by Beidahuang,one of Chinas largest agribusiness companies and perhaps its most aggressive seeker of global farmland, and itslocal partner AgriNurture. For now, the companies farms in the Philippines, covering 2,000 ha, will produceChinese hybrid rice seeds and supply them to Filipino farmers under contract production arrangements. Buteventually the two companies plan to produce the hybrid rice on their own farms. The say that they could have10,000 ha under hybrid rice production by the end of 2012.This is just one of the joint ventures that AgriNurture has set up over the past few years with foreign companiesfor the production of food crops in the Philippines. The company also has a multi-million-dollar banana plantationventure in the works in Mindanao with the People’s Government of Tianyang, Guangxi, China, as well as a farmingventure with the Far Eastern Agricultural Investment Company, a consortium of Saudi companies, that plans toacquire 50,000 ha in Mindanao for the production of fruits and cereals.AgriNuture (ANI) is owned by Tony Tiu, a young Filipino-Chinese entrepreneur and real-estate developer. Sincehe established the company in 2008, Tiu has quickly built it into one of the countrys leading food exporters, witha focus on fresh fruit. Exports account for about half of the companys revenues, and about half of those exportsgo to China. While most of the companys supply currently comes from contract prodution, Tiu wants to develophis own farms and make these his primary source of supply. Plans are under way to acquire 5,000 ha in differentparts of the country for fruit and vegetable farms.Tiu built up his company through listings on the stock exchanges of both Australia and the Philippines, and throughpartnerships with the Landbank of the Philippines and the Department of Agriculture, which support his contractproduction schemes. With more and more land under its control, ANI has itself become a target of overseasfarmland investors. In 2011, Cargills hedge fund, BlackRiver, which is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in theacquisition of farms in Latin America and Asia, bought a 28% stake in AgriNurture. Tony Tiu
44. Friends of Tiu:China-Export Credit Guarantee Corp.: it is providing ANI with ﬁnancial backing for itsbanana plantations in Mindanao.Al Rajhi Group: Saudi conglomerate that leads the Far Eastern Agricultural InvestmentCompany, a US$27-million investment vehicle for the acquisition of farmland in Asia, mainly forrice production. It has an MoU with AgriNurture to develop the production of pineapple, banana,rice and maize on 50,000 ha in the Philippines.Going further: • Asian Peasant Coalition • Pesticide Action Networ - Asia and the Paciﬁc (PANAP) Tony Tiu
45. Hou WeiguiChairman and Founder,Zhongxing Telecommunication Equipment (ZTE) "Our overseas agricultural projects are mainly located in Africa and Southeast Asia where the local agriculture is relatively backward." - from the ZTE Energy website
46. ZTE Corporation is Chinas largest telecommunications company, with operations in more than 140 countries. It wasformed in 1985 by a group of state-owned companies afﬁliated to Chinas Ministry of Aerospace Industry. While it hasbeen listed on the Hong Kong stock exchange since 2004, ZTE is still closely connected to the Chinese government. Itslargest shareholder is a holding company jointly owned by a state-owned electronics research institute in Xi’an and astate-owned company with links to the military. But in 2007, ZTE started to turn its attention to agriculture. It set up anew company, ZTE Energy, to invest in biofuels and food production in China, and to develop overseas farm operations aspart of "the strategic plan on agriculture going globally laid down by the central government".Hou Weigui and his company are slowly moving ahead with plans for acquiring farmland overseas. In 2008, ZTEpurchased 258 ha in Menkao, near Kinshasa, in DR Congo, to study the potential for agriculture ﬁve degrees north andsouth of the equator. ZTE was so happy with the results that it bought another 600-ha farm in DR Congo in 2010. Thecompany also moved into Sudan, where it now runs several cereal farms, and Laos, where it has a 100,000-ha concessionin Chapassak Province to grow cassava with its local partner Dynasty Laos.ZTE has high hopes for palm oil. Although it has put its 100,000-ha oil palm plantation project in DR Congo on hold"because the investment conditions and logistic conditions are not mature," it is going ahead with a programme inIndonesia and Malaysia, where the company plans to have 1 million ha under production by 2019. At present, PT ZTEAgribusiness Indonesia and its local partner PT Sinar Citra have 10,000 ha in Kalimantan, and are negotiating for another25,000 ha. Hou Weigui
47. Friends of Hou Weigui:World Food Programme: ZTE Energy is a "qualiﬁedsupplier " of the World Food Programme.Going Further: • Laos Land Issue Working Group • Peasant Confederation of Congo, by way of La Via Campesina Hou Weigui

In Depth

Land Rush in Africa

By Jessica Silver-Greenberg

November 25, 2009

Farmland in developing countries has become an unlikely object of investor fascination. Morgan Stanley (MS) and other Wall Street firms are raising hundreds of millions of dollars for agriculture funds aimed at Africa and Latin America. Agribusinesses in the U.S. are leasing vast tracts of African land from which they expect to export crops and glean healthy returns. Arab oil countries, meanwhile, are vying for fertile acreage for fear their homelands are running out of water.

The executives leading this hunt for farmland say they are boosting poor economies. Dominion Farms, based in Guthrie, Okla., leases 17,000 acres in Kenya near the village where President Barack Obama's grandmother lives. Dominion President Calvin Burgess boasts that his company provides employment for hundreds of local residents. "This area was a malaria-infested swamp before we got here," he says. Once Dominion is fully in gear, it plans to sell rice to African governments and export farm-raised fish to Europe.

But in Kenya, foreign land investors are beginning to stir resentment. Subsistence farmers and cattle herders complain that they are being displaced without compensation. In the Siaya District of southwest Kenya, families say Dominion hasn't offered as many jobs as it claims in the six years since it arrived. Villagers accuse it of polluting water and sickening farm animals—allegations the company denies.

Tensions are rising. Charles Onyango Apiyo, 39, raises cattle in Siaya. A year ago, he says, 10 of his cows wandered onto Dominion property. The entire herd of 150 was confiscated by company employees and taken to a police station. The cattle were held for almost two weeks, during which time 20 died, Apiyo says. More perished from dehydration on the trek back to his land. In an interview on the side of a dusty road, he says he has received nothing for his losses.

Dominion's Burgess expresses little sympathy. Stray cattle, he says, can spread disease. "Can you imagine a rice farmer in Mississippi allowing stray cattle onto his field?"

Several factors explain the rush to invest in farmland in Africa. In 2007 high oil prices drove up the cost of crop production and shipping. The resulting spike in food prices was exacerbated by severe droughts in Eastern Europe and Australia. Sensing opportunity, investors and corporate farmers went shopping in Kenya, Sudan, Tanzania, and Ethiopia. Governments in those countries, which annually accept billions of dollars in food aid, leased land to outsiders in exchange for promises of cash, roads, and schools. Local residents, however, often weren't consulted when land they considered theirs was turned over to newcomers. Centuries-old themes of exploitation inevitably surfaced.

AN UNUSUAL CONFERENCEIn the first half of 2009 private equity funds lined up more than $2 billion to invest in farmland, according to Agcapita, a Calgary-based fund. BlackRock (BLK) has raised $500 million to invest in agriculture. Philippe Heilberg, a former commodities trader for American International Group (AIG), has leased 1 million acres in Sudan. Heilberg's New York-based Jarch Capital announced in April that it had acquired the land for an undisclosed amount through a Sudanese firm. Jarch plans to grow rice, wheat, and other crops for export. The owner of the land is Gabriel Matip, a son of General Paulino Matip, the leader of the armed wing of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which fought a long war against the government in Khartoum that ended in 2005. In a statement issued to the Sudan Tribune in April, Jarch said it planned to lease another million acres by the end of 2009. The completion of that deal hasn't been announced.

In June scores of institutional investors gathered in New York for Global AgInvesting 2009, a first-of-its-kind conference. Among the attendees were employees of the endowment funds of Harvard and New York Universities and the pension plan for San Diego County, Calif. The potential investors were told that in Africa, a little Western technology can fertilize crops and generate profits. "It's a mad scramble for African farmland right now," says Carl Atkin, head of research for Bidwells Agribusiness, a large British company that recruited investors at the conference.

Japan, China, and other Asian countries have operated farms in Africa for more than 20 years. A million Chinese do agricultural work on the continent, according to the U.N. Now a throng of additional outsiders is arriving.

Saudi Arabia held a lavish ceremony in March in Riyadh to celebrate the first harvest from a $100 million rice and wheat project in Ethiopia. In December 2008, Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki flew to Qatar to meet with officials there about a potential deal under which the tiny Middle Eastern emirate would build a port in the coastal city of Lamu in exchange for a long-term lease on almost 100,000 acres to grow rice.

Dominion Farms' Burgess began negotiations in 2002 with the governments of Kenya's Siaya and Bondo districts near giant Lake Victoria. The 58-year-old executive says his interest in Africa was sparked by a member of his church in Guthrie who makes charitable trips to Kenya. Burgess decided to bring American-style agribusiness to Africa. "God has plans for people's lives," he says, "and I thought that maybe this was part of His plan for me."

PLEADING FOR THEIR PEOPLEDominion isn't an obvious candidate for farming in Kenya. Part of Dominion Group, a privately held conglomerate involved in real estate development and manufacturing, Dominion once ran prisons for Colorado and other states. Corrections Corp. of America (CXW) has acquired that business.

When he arrived in Siaya, Burgess rode by Jeep over pock-marked roads to examine land in an area near where the Yala River empties into Lake Victoria. Local officials told him that past irrigation plans had failed, he says. Burgess recounts how he was greeted by two members of the Luo tribe dressed in tattered Western-style suits. The old men pleaded for help for their people, he says. "I made the decision that night."

Soon thereafter, Dominion secured a 25-year lease on 17,000 acres, with an option to renew for an additional 20 years. Burgess says that to obtain the lease he made a series of agreements in confidential documents signed by members of local councils and tribal chiefs. These agreements were approved by the Kenyan Lands Ministry in Nairobi, says Dorothy N. Angote, the ministry's permanent secretary.

Dominion is obligated to pay a total of $140,000 in rent annually. On top of that, Burgess says he paid the Siaya County Council $100,000 two years ago. A county official conceded that the $100,000 vanished, according to local newspaper reports. Separately, Burgess says he paid $120,000 to the local Lake Basin Development Authority in 2003. That money also disappeared, he says. Neither the authority nor the county council responded to several requests for comment.

Dominion also agreed to clear 300 acres of its land for residents to use communally. In addition, it said it would rehabilitate at least one school and one health facility in each of the Siaya and Bondo districts.

More than six years later, these arrangements haven't all gone according to plan. Before the company's arrival, tens of thousands of farming and herding families used parts of the Yala wetlands now occupied by Dominion. Many of these residents have lost access to land they considered theirs. As a legal matter, land rights were held by the various government bodies that leased tracts to Dominion, according to the Lands Ministry. Scores of homes where Dominion now operates were relocated to make way for a dam and reservoir the company built. Burgess says about 50 families were compensated as a result. Chris Owalla, a local community organizer, estimates that 300 families were displaced.

Burgess says owners were paid amounts roughly double the worth of their properties. Residents say the compensation—typically 4,600 Kenyan shillings, or about $60 per home—was inadequate. Erasto Odindo, who grows beans, maize, and tomatoes on eight acres in Bondo, says he rejected Dominion's offer because the money was too little.

Dominion has renovated one of the two promised health centers, installing electricity, X-ray machines, and dental equipment. But residents say they have trouble reaching the small facility because the road to it runs through Dominion's farm and company security officers sometimes deny them access. No schools have been renovated, although Dominion has donated building materials for those projects.

By all accounts, the 300 acres Dominion has set aside for communal farming hasn't been used for that purpose. The reasons are in dispute. Burgess blames local officials for keeping people off the land. The officials want to supervise the farming and collect the profits, he alleges. Local farmers, in contrast, say that when they tried to plant crops, they were blocked by the company or saw their maize and rice uprooted by Dominion bulldozers, according to Owalla, the community organizer. Burgess denies these accusations. It is difficult for an outsider to get to the bottom of the matter.

Burgess says that overall, Dominion has improved life for Kenyans. "I disagree when people say, 'Oh, you have to preserve the local culture,'" he says. "If you preserve it, people will starve, and you won't have a culture to preserve." He plays down the idea that land formerly used for subsistence agriculture has now been monopolized by Dominion. Farms that surround his company's property are little more than "unproductive gardens," he says. Most of the area his company now cultivates simply wasn't being used before, he says. "No one was there."

Burgess says Dominion employs 700 local people in various capacities. But villagers dispute this. In 2003 the company hired some 200 people to pull weeds and chase away birds, according to Owalla. As the Dominion farm became more mechanized, jobs dwindled, the activist and local residents say.

During a reporter's visit to the area over three days, some 40 women were observed working at any one time in the Dominion rice paddies. Three men operated tractor equipment along the road. Several of the women said in interviews that they earn less than 200 shillings a day, the equivalent of $3. They declined to give their names for fear of losing their jobs.

FLOOD DAMAGEEven some local farmers who have kept their land complain about Dominion's presence. Odindo, the farmer in Bondo, reigns as the informal mayor of his neighborhood. While chickens and goats roam the mud-walled front yard of his neatly painted white house, he explains that local farmers fear Dominion eventually will force many of them to seek work in Nairobi—a fate they all dread. "How can you suddenly ask them to change their whole life?"

During severe rains in 2007, Odindo says most of his crops were destroyed by flooding he blames on a nearby dam that Dominion built. He holds up worn photos showing his farm almost totally submerged. "We have never seen that kind of flooding before," he says. More than 1,000 homes were damaged, and some were swept completely away, he adds.

Jackson Oware, who lives nearby, has placed small markers where five of his mud huts stood before the flooding destroyed them. "We are not sure when to replant because it could all be washed away again," Oware says.

Burgess says the ferocity of the storm caused the damage. "We were in no way responsible for this flooding," he adds. "These people just want someone to blame."

Residents report other fears as well. Since Dominion's arrival, they say, drinking water from the Yala River has a metallic taste they attribute to the company's use of fertilizer. Odindo says Dominion's spraying of pesticides has sickened some animals. "Every home has a dead cow or dead goat," he says.

A soil and water analysis in August, paid for by the antipoverty group ActionAid International, concluded that people shouldn't drink from the Yala River. Among the concerns mentioned in the analysis are the presence of dieldrin, a chemical ingredient in some pesticides that has been linked to breast cancer and Parkinson's disease. The Environmental Protection Agency banned dieldrin in the U.S. in 1987.

Burgess says Dominion uses no pesticides in Kenya. Crop-dusting planes that circle the company's property spray only nitrogen-based fertilizers and herbicides—neither of which is harmful, he adds.

Grahame Vetch, Dominion's manager in Kenya from 2004 to 2007, contradicts his former employer on the pesticide question. Vetch, who according to Burgess was fired for poor management, now runs his own land development company in the area. He says Dominion did use pesticides to battle crop-eating pests, such as the quelea bird.

Environmental oversight is weak in Kenya. Selalah Okoth, the district officer in Bondo for Kenya's National Environment Management Authority, says she hasn't assessed water or soil there since she took the job in 2004. Okoth cites a lack of resources, saying she fears there could be harmful pollution caused by Dominion.

Burgess responds with dismay. "When you try to help these people," he says, "all they do is complain." He says his company is trying to foster farming that will attract jobs and investment. He speaks often of his spiritual motivation. A large white Christian cross stands behind Dominion's main facility. Burgess says he erected it after community leaders told him his farm included sites associated with witchcraft.

The American executive has also preached in local churches to promote good relations. But that hasn't gone over well with everyone. "Burgess came into my church and claimed that we didn't know Christ well enough, and we should do it right to prosper," says Odindo. "Well, we are poorer now."

Business Exchange: Read, save, and add content on BW's new Web 2.0 topic networkGrain Spotting in AfricaAs the race for African farmland picks up, Grain is keeping score. The Rome-based nongovernmental organization aggregates local and international news reports and press releases to assemble a running tally of land deals. The site aims to raise awareness about the vast tracts of land being leased by foreigners in Africa, Latin America, and other parts of the developing world.To check out Grain, go to http://bx.businessweek.com/industrial-agriculture/reference/

This article was done in collaboration with the International Reporting Project (internationalreportingproject.org), a nonprofit that provides grants to U.S. journalists.

Calvin Burgess in Politics of Yala Swamp and Dominion Farms in Kenya

Posted on 9 August 2007. Filed under: Environment, Politics |

Dominion Farms Limited is a multinational international firm owned by an American entrepreneur Mr. Calvin Burgess of Edmund Oklahoma, USA.

The firm entered into a Memorandum of Understanding with the Government of Kenya in 2004, which leased it 3000 hectares of the original 6000 hectares Dominion Farms had requested. Since then the firm has been producing large quantity of maize, cotton, sunflower , rice, groundnuts on the already reclaimed area. It has also started a bee keeping and fish farming project which is meant to boost the economy and food production.

Both the government and opposition Members of Parliament are happy with the activities of Dominion Farms and talk is rife that Mr. Burgess recently requested President Mwai Kibaki of Kenya to consider increasing the lease allocation to 17,500 hectares of the Yala River Swamp located next Lake Victoria to cover more areas and benefit the local communites who, according to Mr. Burgess, are the among the poorest in Kenya – more than 80% of whom live below $1 a day – in addition to facing the grim realities of HIV/Aids, Malaria and extreme weather conditions.

However, it has not been smooth sailing for Dominion Farms. Lobby groups and environmental activists have raised serious concerns with Kenyan and UNEP authorities about alleged environmental destruction and human rights abuses committed by Dominion Farms in Kenya’s Yala Swamp. The firm is being accused of that its industrial agriculture and aquaculture projects threaten the integrity of the Yala Swamp ecosystem and the health and well being of up to 1 million residents. It has also been accused of flooding private agricultural and grazing lands as well as homes, forced thousands of people (with compensation) to relocate against their will, cutting fishermen off from communal fishing areas, and contaminating water that people and animals use for drinking. For this reason they say, it is vital that Dominion Farms’ proposed expansion and new projects each be thoroughly and independently assessed for the impacts they will have on the swamp ecosystem and the human population. They say that no corporation should be permitted to profit at the expense of irreplaceable natural resources and human rights. Infact, some lobbyist have likened Dominion Farms activities in Kenya as “re-colonization by multinational corporations”.

“It’s forty-four years since Kenyans won independence. Now they’re fighting for self determination again,” said Paula Palmer of Global Response.

Whether the lobbyist succeed in ending the activities of Dominion Farms in Yala Swamp remain to be seen. With the General Elections looming in December 2007, the Government of Kenya is keen not to upset local communities who are happy with the commercial activities of the multinational company.

http://kenvironews.wordpress.com/2007/08/09/politics-of-yala-swamp-and-dominion-farms-in-kenya/

Friends of Yala Swamps (FOYs)
Project Coordination Office
Siala Plaza, 1st Floor, Door 10 & 11.

To: Hon. James Aggrey Orengo,
The Minister For lands,
Republic of Kenya.

From:
P.O.Box 775, Siaya
Tel: +254-723409125/731630827
Email: foysoffice@gmail.com

16th June 2011

Dear Hon. Orengo,

RE: ADDRESSING THE LAND QUESTION OF THE YALA SWAMP AND SECURING ITS ECOLOGICAL INTEGRITY.

Greetings from the Friends of Yala Swamp (FOYS). We take this opportunity to introduce to you the Friends of Yala Swamp (FOYS), a network that was formed in 2007 by civil society organizations engaging on matters of the yala swamp with the goal of building an effective coalition and alliance of citizens and CSOs to secure Yala Swamp and other natural resource based assets from non-sustainable commercial exploitation by both the locals and international investors. Having engaged with the issues of the yala swamp for over five years, we have both appreciated the true worth of the wetland as a critical source of water for humans, animals and plants, a pillar for the sustenance of the livelihood of the majority population around it, a source of medicinal plants and so on. However, we have also witnessed a worrying decline in its of ecological integrity as a result of unsustainable use. We wish to draw your attention to these issues, vide the attached memorandum, which we believe are well within your means to address. The land chapter in the New Constitution, which your Ministry is ably operationalizing, indeed sets out clear principles like equitable access to land, security of land rights, sustainable and productive management of land resources, transparent management of land as well as sound conservation and protection of ecologically sensitive areas. It is our humble submission that if the spirit of these provisions are adhered to, the biodiversity of the swamp would be conserved and the communities as well as the Nation at large would realize numerous economic, social, cultural and environmental dividends. We hope the issues highlighted herein will meet your urgent attention. We would appreciate a formal meeting with you to provide clarifications where needed as well as strategize on a joint front in dealing with the issues.

Yours Faithfully,
FOR AND ON BEHALF OF THE FOYS
MR. DALMAS OWINO OKENDO
COORDINATOR
P.O.Box 775, Siaya
Tel: +254-723409125/731630827
Email: foysoffice@gmail.com
Friends of Yala Swamps (FOYs)
Project Coordination Office
Siala Plaza, 1st Floor, Door 10 & 11. 2

1.0 Introduction The Yala swamp complex consists of various wetland resources saddled between Bondo, Busia and Siaya Districts of Nyanza in Western Kenya. The swamp has served the adjacent communities from time immemorial as source of fish, water, agricultural land, pastures, wild animals, plants for constructing houses, source of wood fuel, medicinal plants etc. The yala swamp is one of the most fragile ecosystems around Lake Victoria and to conservationists the swamp should be treated as Kenya/East Africa’s national heritage, shared resource of Lake Victoria and one of the wetlands in E. A. with the highest number of biodiversity and a museum for lost species of Lake Victoria. The swamp has a filtering effect on the waters draining into Lake Victoria. It buffers the lake by retaining nutrients, sediments and prevents organic pollution load from reaching the lake. The lake is at risk from over exploitation of the natural resources by the heavy investments by the Dominion group of companies, a host of other private developers as well as the communities within this fragile ecosystem.
1.1 The Friends of Yala Swamp (FOYS)
The Friends of Yala Swamp (FOYS) is a network that was formed by civil society organizations engaging on matters of the yala swamp. Established in 2007 following the entry of Dominion Farms LTD, an American multi-national company based in Oklahoma, into the yala wetland, the FOYS brings together twelve (12) organizations
1 that have diverse civic mandate, ranging from environmental governance, human rights, community mobilization and capacity building, advocacy and lobbying. The goal of the FOYS is to build an effective coalition and alliances of citizens and CSOs to secure Yala Swamp and other natural resource based assets from non-sustainable commercial exploitation by both the locals and international investors. Its objectives include:

1 Institute for Law and Environmental Governance (ILEG); Kenya Land Alliance (KLA); Ujamaa Centre; Kituo Cha Sheria; Action Aid-Kenya; Community Initiative Action Group Kenya (CIAG-K); Kenya Organization for Environmental Education (KOEE); Resources Conflict Institute (RECONCILE); Seeds of Peace Africa (SOPA); Ugunja Community Resource Centre (UCRC); Bondo Residents Association (BORESA); and, Kenya Wetlands Forum (KWF)  Undertake and promote capacity development and advocacy on sustainable development and environmental justice;
 To build a community based social capital towards effective engagement and resistance of negative and deeply entrenched attitudes and perceptions that sustains the negative impacts that sustain non- environmental compliance and disrespect for fundamental human rights by the Dominion project.
 To popularize environmental justice campaigns and build an effective community-led Friends of Yala Swamp lobby in Kenya.
 To examine, research, document, audit, disseminate & exchange cutting edge information on Dominion and its activities in Kenya.
 To establish an institutional framework that will coordinate, resource and expand the work of environmental justice in Kenya.
To ensure an effective campaign, these organizations are currently clustered into five working groups that handle the different aspects of the campaign. There is a team leader in each of the working groups. The working groups are: (i) Planning for Campaign Week; (ii) Litigation and related concerns; (iii) Resource Mobilization; (iv) Engagement of the Media; and, (v) Community Mobilization.

Dominion Farms.., Oklahoma, Federal Government of Nigeria and Land grab? By Abdul Mahmud

Posted by: NewsdiaryonlinePosted date: February 24, 2012In: Business, News| comment : 14

Recently, the Federal Government of Nigeria through the Honourable Minister of Agriculture, Dr Adesina signed a Joint Venture Agreement on Commercial Rice farming with Calvin Burgess, owner and principal promoter of the Oklahoma-based Dominion Farms Limited.
No details on the nature of and the terms of ownership, costs of the Joint Venture Agreement were disclosed by the parties at the Media briefing held in Abuja early this week. However, the activities of Dominion Farms Kenya Limited, the local Kenya subsidiary of Dominion Farms Limited, Guthrie, Oklahoma, suggest something sinister. Dominion Farms Kenya Limited has consistently been accused by the locals of the Yala swamp basin of land grabbing and have consistently resisted attempts by Calvin Burgess, supported by corrupt Kenya officials, to forcefully and unlawful evict them from their naturally rich, ancestral land.
We fear that an investor who has become notorious for land grabbing on the continent could be allowed access to the 30,000 hectares Gassol swamps of Gassol Local Government Area of Taraba state, without any public assurances given by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture in his media briefing.
That General Obasanjo, former President of Nigeria, is a known promoter of this private farming venture, is a matter of public record. What isn’t known is the extent of his private interest in the Joint Venture that was made public by the Honourable Minister of Agriculture as wholely a business relationship between the Federal Government of Nigeria and Dominion Farms Limited, Oklahoma and its local subsidiary, Dominion Farms Nigeria Limited.
Pursuant to the right to know, guaranteed by the Freedom of Information Act, 2011, I caused a letter dated 23rd February 2012 to be served on the Honorable Minister of Agriculture requesting that disclosures be made on information relating to the Joint Venture Agreement in his possession or custody of his Ministry. Please, find the Freedom of Information Letter attached to this press statement.
Being the text of a press statement sent in by Abdul Mahmud,Managing Partner/Attorney,Berkeleys,Abuja.
Below is the FOI request he sent to the Minisster:
23^rd February 2012
The Honourable Minister of Agriculture,
Federal Ministry of Agriculture,
Abuja.
Dear Sir,
Request for Access to Record or Information made under Section 1 of the Freedom of Information Act, 2011.
I am writing to request information under the Freedom of Information Act 2011. Sir, in order to assist you, I am outlining my request as specifically as possible and as follows:

I am interested in any information in your custody or in the possession of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture relating to the ‘Terms of Ownership’ of the Rice Farm in Taraba State provided for by the Joint Venture Agreement you recently signed on behalf of the Federal Government of Nigeria with Dominion Farms Limited, Guthrie, Oklahoma, United States of America and its newly incorporated Nigerian subsidiary, Dominion Farms Nigeria Limited;
Any information in your custody or in the possession of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture relating to the ‘Nature of Training’ that Dominion Farms Limited intends to deliver to Nigerian farmers;
Any Information in your custody or in the possession of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture relating to the Nature of the Land designed as the farm in situ, the Land Holding and Ownership;
Any information in your custody or in the possession of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture relating to the Cost of the Joint Venture Rice Farm to Nigerian Tax Payers.

Sir, by Section 1(2) of the said Freedom of Information Act 2011, I need not demonstrate any specific interest in the information I am applying for.
Furthermore, sir, if my request for all or part of the information or record is denied, I humbly request that you serve me a written notice pursuant to Section 4(2) of the said Act stating reason(s) for the refusal to make available the information requested, the specific section(s) of the Act under which the denial is made.
I look forward to receiving the information within Seven Days (7) following the receipt of my request, as stated in the said Act.
Yours sincerely,
Abdul Mahmud
Managing Partner

Calvin Burgess = Dominion Farm in Siaya

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Calvin Burgess is an evangelical Christian businessman and the president of Dominion Farms Limited, an enormous agricultural operation in western Kenya that has been accused of being a "land grab."

"Following his 1972 graduation from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Calvin Burgess managed a major construction company in Victoria, B.C. Upon moving to the U.S. in 1976, he worked briefly for general contractors in Texas and Oklahoma before establishing Canam Construction Company in 1977 in Edmond, Oklahoma. Within 15 years of its founding, Canam had become the largest general construction firm headquartered in the Oklahoma City area. Between 1986 and 2005 when Canam exited the construction business, Dominion/Canam built 3.2 million square feet of essential public buildings – all under the fast-track, design-build approach to development.

"Mr. Burgess formed Dominion Leasing in 1986 to pursue the privatization of previously traditional government functions. Dominion’s success in the development of public projects led to the creation of a number of affiliated companies providing a broad range of services to federal, state and local governments. Dominion Properties developed and still owns one of the largest aggregation of office buildings leased to the U.S. Government. Dominion has developed more high-security prisons than any other privately owned company in the U.S. Several of Mr. Burgess’ entities have pioneered their fields of work and have materially advanced the concept of privatization.

"In pursuit of his interest in aviation, Mr. Burgess established Spirit Wing Aviation in 1988 to own and operate corporate aircraft. This company’s mission has expanded into the restoration of vintage aircraft and the engine modification of early models of Learjet aircraft with Williams FJ44 fanjets. Designs and components developed by Spirit Wing for business and military jets are valued by some of the world’s largest aerospace companies.

"Mr. Burgess is active in the organization and operation of faith-based missions focused on the citizens of poor and developing nations, including his personal investment in Dominion Farms Ltd. As its principal officer and investor, he spends one-third of his time at the farm and manages it remotely from Oklahoma the remainder of the time."^[1]

Yala Swamp is a "vast wetland protecting the mouth of the Nzoia River and the north-eastern shore of Lake Victoria in Kenya. Lake Kanyaboli, which still shelters some of the fish species that have disappeared from Lake Victoria, is part of the Yala Swamp complex.

"The swamp's large stand of papyrus reeds and other sedges collect water during the rains, stabilizes the muddy soil, traps sediment and filters pollutants. These ecological services help to keep Lake Victoria waters clear, reduce soil erosion and minimize the impacts of floods."^[1] It is also home to a number of bird species, including papyrus endemics - birds only found in papyrus swamp habitat. However, currently Yala Swamp is being converted into a massive industrial agricultural operation by Dominion Farms Limited, an Oklahoma-based company that produces rice, bananas, and tilapia. Yala Swamp is located in Siaya District, Nyanza Province and Busia District, Western Province.^[2]Ramogi Hill, a sacred site to the Luo people, is contained within the swamp.

Socio-Economic Value

"Kenya's wetlands, covering 14,000 km2, are a resource of great social-cultural and economic potential (Gichuki, 1990). Many of Kenya's rural communities draw food, medicinal products, fuelwood, materials for building and handicraft from wetlands. However, these ecosystems are today facing a serious threat to their continued existence from encroaching human development activities, especially agricultural operations."^[3]

Ceremonial Uses In the region of Yala Swamp and the Nzoia River, the Bukusu subgroup of the Luhya people traditionally use secluded areas within wetlands for circumcision ceremonies, in which young men "smear themselves thoroughly with mud, and then walk naked back home."^[3]

Hunting and Gathering Both the Luo and Luhya people use wetlands to hunt birds and other wild animals. "According to Ogutu (1987) the points at which the Rivers Yala and Nzoia enter Lake Victoria were swampy and bush enough for the water-related beasts to inhabit, thus, the hunters could easily lay traps in these concealed areas for big animals, such as the Hippopotamus 'rawo' (which were fairly numerous in olden days), or small rodents such as 'anyier'."^[3] The Nyala people also hunted Sitatunga antelope and wild pigs for food. The Luhya people mostly trapped birds, including those found in wetlands. Most of the materials for making basket traps and cages for birds also came from the wetlands (papyrus, bulrushes).

Local people also gathered materials to construct beehives within the wetlands, and honey was then used for local brews and medicine, as well as for food. The Luo and Luhya people also gather wild greens, especially during the dry season, from the wetlands. For example, the Luhya gather 'enderema' and 'lubiliabilia,' which were also used to "cure certain ailments of the stomach."^[3] "The fact that land was commonly owned meant that one could collect fruits and vegetables that grew on wetlands without restriction. The changing land ownership system that encourages privatisation of land has somehow reduced the importance of gathering wild greens."^[3]

Traditional mud home with thatched roof, Bondo District, Kenya

Building Materials

Traditional homes near Yala Swamp are constructed of mud with thatched roofs. Traditional style mud homes keep a family cool during hot days and warm at night. They are also biodegradable, which serves a purpose as the Luo people traditionally do not inhabit the homes of the dead. As some switch to building non-biodegradable homes of brick and metal, the tradition of not moving into the homes of the dead results in many abandoned, erect, non-biodegradable houses.^[4]

"In building construction, clay of different types was used for plastering the walls and floors of houses (Odak, 1987). The clays varied depending on the local availability but those obtained from wetlands were usually preferred (O. Abok, pers. comm.) Such clays have also been used extensively in providing commodities such as pots of different types and sizes and smoking pipes (Odak, 1987).

A Luo man holding a traditional basket he made, Bondo District, Kenya. February 23, 2012.

"The herbaceous vegetation from marshes was traditionally harvested with the clay and used in the construction of houses and granaries. Traditional Luhya houses, for example, had walls constructed from a framework of sticks or reeds and the roof was assembled separately from reeds or maize stalks tied to rings of grass or split palm leaves (Were and Soper, 1986)."^[3]

Women making and selling traditional baskets and mats, Bondo District, Kenya. Today, some use plastic instead of reeds and twigs in basket making. February 24, 2012.

Other uses of twigs and grass from the swamp are basket and mat making. "The popular 'marachi' sofas are made from 'amaduru' reeds and branches of the 'isiola' tree. They are often coloured with natural black and yellow dyes made from the water plant 'litodo' (Were and Soper, 1986)."^[3]

As of 2012, some Kenyans living near Yala Swamp continue to utilize grass thatching to construct roofs, although those with enough money sometimes opt to use corrugated iron sheets instead.^[4]

Fishing Fishing for domestic consumption and for sale is also a traditional use of the Yala Swamp.^[3] Traditionally, wetlands were also used as sources of materials to make fishing equipment. For example, the Luhya weave reeds in conical patterns to construct basket traps known as 'evisu' and 'omukono.' Another fish trap is the 'olukhwiro,' which is made of a fence of reeds tied together with papyrus stems that is fastened to fence posts. The Luo also use reeds and papyrus stems to make the 'sienya' basket trap.

Livestock Some people who inhabit the areas near Yala Swamp use the area to graze their livestock.

Species Found in Yala Swamp

Bird species include:^[1]

Papyrus Gonolek (Laniarius mufumbiri)
Papyrus Yellow Warbler (Chloropeta gracilirostris)
Papyrus Canary (Serinus koliensis)
Carruthers's Cisticola (Cisticola carruthers)
White-winged Swamp Warbler (Bradypterus carpalis)
Great Egret (Casmerodius albus)
Baillon's Crake (Porzana pusilla)
Great Snipe (Gallinago media)
White-winged Scrub-warbler (Bradypterus carpalis)^[5]
Sharpe's Pied-babbler (Turdoides sharpei)^[5]
Red-chested Sunbird (Nectarinia erythrocerca)^[5]
Northern Brown-throated Weaver (Ploceus castanops)^[5]

Fish species include:^[1]

Singidia Tilapia (Oreochromis esculentus)
Victoria Tilapia (Oreochromis variabilis)
Cat fish (Clarias gariepinus)
Lung fish (Protopterus aethiopicus)

Mammal species include:^[1]

Sitatunga Antelope (Tragecephalus spekii)
Vervet Monkey (Chlorocebus pygerythrus)
Spotted-neck Otter (Hyrictis maculicollis)
Bush Pig (Potamochoerus larvatus)

Articles and resources

References

↑ ^1.0^1.1^1.2^1.3"Yala Swamp: Important Bird Area," pamphlet by Nature Kenya.
↑ Leon Bennun and Peter Njoroge, Important Bird Areas in Kenya, BirdLife International, 1999.
↑ ^3.0^3.1^3.2^3.3^3.4^3.5^3.6^3.7R.W. Kareri, "The Sociological and Economic Values of Kenya's Wetlands," Wetlands of Kenya: Proceedings of a Seminar on Wetlands in Kenya,S.A. Craftter, S.G. Njuguna and G.W. Howard (Eds), 1992, p. 99-107.
↑ ^4.0^4.1Jill Richardson, visit to Bondo District, Nyanza Province, Kenya, February 20-24, 2012.
↑ ^5.0^5.1^5.2^5.3Yala Swamp, BirdLife International, Accessed February 25, 2012.

External resources

Community Conservation of Yala Swamp, Kenya, National Committee of the Netherlands.
Yala Swamp, BirdLife International.
Wetlands of Kenya: Proceedings of a Seminar on Wetlands in Kenya,S.A. Craftter, S.G. Njuguna and G.W. Howard (Eds), 1992. Wetlands of Kenya. Proceedings of the KWWG Seminar on Wetlands of Kenya, National Museums of Kenya, Nairobi, Kenya, 3-5 July 1991. vii + 183 pp. The IUCN Wetlands Programme

External articles

"Yala Swamp Important Bird Area Conservation Management Plan," Version 1, UK Department of Environment Food and Rural Affairs Darwin Initiative, October 2009.
Gichuki, N. 1990. The ecological and socio-economic aspect of conservation and management of wetlands as bird habitatsin Kenya. A Research project proposal. World Wildlife Fund. Nairobi, Kenya. 37 pp.
Ochumba, PBO and DI Kibaara, 1989. Observations of the green algal blooms in the open waters of Lake Victoria, Kenya. Afr J. Ecol 27:23-34.
Mavuti, K.M. 1989. Ecology of the Yala Swamp. Resources 1:11-14.
Okondo, P. 1989. The Yala Swamp is Useless. Resources 1:16-19.
Lake Basin Development Authority. 1989. Reclaiming the Yala Swamp. Resources 1(1):9-11.
Odak, O. 1987. Material culture and design. Pages 242-263. In: Republic of Kenya, (1987) Siaya District Socio-cultural Profile. Ministry of Planning and National Development and Institute of Agricultural Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Ogutu, M.A. 1987. Fisheries and fishing. Pages 86-105. In: Republic of Kenya, (1987) Siaya District Socio-cultural Profile. Ministry of Planning and National Development and Institute of Agricultural Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.
Were, G.S. and R. Soper (Eds). 1986. Kenya socio-cultural profiles Busia District. Ministry of Planning and National Development and Institute of Agricultural Studies, University of Nairobi, Kenya.

Dominion Farms Limited

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A combine harvests rice at Dominion Farms while a crop dusting plane sprays pesticides. February 22, 2012.

Dominion Farms Limited is an Oklahoma-based corporation operating a large farm in western Kenya.
As of February 2012, Dominion produces rice, bananas, and tilapia sold locally within Kenya.^[1] The farm is also beginning to expand into soybeans and preparing to begin operations in Nigeria. The Kenya operation is located in the ecologically sensitive and important Yala Swamp, situated between Bondo and Siaya districts. The land was leased to Dominion for 25 years with the possibility of extension.^[2] Dominion began clearing and reclaiming the swamp in 2003. Their rice mill began operation in 2006. The farm's rice was first sold in 2007.^[3]
President Calvin Burgeess claims, "Our target market is Kenya and our prices are deliberately lower. We are trying to reach to the majority of Kenyans who are in the low income bracket," says Mr Burges. "For us at Dominion Farms, money is not the primary goal. The primary concern is providing food security for the growing population".^[3] However, a 2009 Business Week article says that "Once Dominion is fully in gear, it plans to sell rice to African governments and export farm-raised fish to Europe."^[4]

Dominion in Kenya

History

By 2009, the farm had leased 17,000 acres for 25 years, with an option to renew the lease for 20 years. It pays $140,000 per year in rent, or just over US$8 per acre. Some also accuse the company of bribing the Siaya County Council with $100,000 in 2007 and the Lake Basin Development Authority with $120,000 in 2003. The money disappeared in both cases. The company admits to making the payments but does not see them as bribes.^[4]

In 2011, President Calvin Burgess said that the company has "17,050 acres of property and we have to date developed approximately 5,000 of that but we want to reclaim every bit of it. The water table is falling and soon we can get more equipment on the land. We hope that with all factors holding constant, the rest of the reclamation will be complete in the next two years."^[3]

However, several accounts note that the initial lease was not for the full 17,000 acres of Yala Swamp. One source says that Dominion leased 2,300 hectares (5680 acres) for €12,000 a year (about US$21,600) in 2004.^[5] At that rate, the amount paid per year was €5.22 per hectare (approximately US$3.80 per acre). The area represents the area that had been previously reclaimed from the swamp by the Kenyan government. According to the group Friends of Yala Swamp:^[6]

"Dominion Farms Ltd, a subsidiary of Dominion Group of Companies based in Edmond Oklahoma USA, moved into the Yala swamp in 2003 through an arrangement with the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA). The initial proposal was that Dominion would engage in rice production, in part of the swamp known as Area I, covering about 2,300 ha. This land portion had been reclaimed before 1970, and previously used by LBDA for agricultural activity, mainly to produce cereals, pulses and horticultural crops. An environmental impact assessment (EIA) was commissioned for large-scale rice production, for which a license was issued in 2004, specifically for the rice irrigation. Instead of the originally intended rice cultivation in the 2,300ha once owned by the LBDA, Dominion Farms Ltd embarked on other additional agricultural and development activities in the swamp that went beyond the intended rice cultivation to include construction of irrigation dykes and weirs, water-drilling, construction of airstrip, road construction etc.

"Dominion further proposed to undertake a number of new development projects within the Yala Swamp, under what is now called “an integrated project”. For this purpose it proposed that part of 9,200 ha be reclaimed from swamp area. This has left only 6,000 ha (35%) of current wetland to act as buffer zone. The company was asked by NEMA to undertake new EIA to incorporate all current and proposed projects. This report was submitted to NEMA in October 2005. But despite the fact that a license was yet to be issued for the activities, Dominion Farms Ltd embarked on the implementation of their proposed development activities. The revelation of the new activities undertaken by Dominion Farms Ltd elicited mixed reactions from a number of stakeholders voicing various concerns ranging from issues of sustainable development, environment and livelihoods."

Farming Operation

A film of agrochemicals in the water at Dominion Farms. February 22, 2012.

Dominion describes its agricultural model as follows:

"Today Dominion Farms is a celebrated example of technology-based, irrigated agriculture in western Kenya. It is a model for long-range planners who seek to develop the water resources and expand the land under cultivation that is needed to sustain the fast-growing Kenyan population. It also illustrates the synergies of using agricultural by-products to lower operating costs through reduced reliance on the use of chemicals and imported fuels."^[7]

Rice Production

Dominion's operations are in one of Kenya's semi-arid areas, but it takes advantage of the water from the Yala River to provide the heavy amount of irrigation required to grow rice.

Rice growing at Dominion Farms. February 22, 2012.

To grow their rice, Dominion first tills the fields with a tractor to prepare for planting. The rice is direct seeded by a tractor (as opposed to traditional rice growing, in which rice is first planted in a seedbed and then transplanted after it begins to grow) and then the field is immediately flooded. After four to five days, the field is drained and the rice remains dry during a one month "hardening off" period. Employees weed rice fields by hand (although herbicide is also used) and fill in any gaps where rice did not germinate by transplanting rice seedlings. After one month, they flood the field once again and wait for the rice to mature after a total of 120 days. The rice is harvested by a combine. Sometimes after a field is harvested, the rice plants are left to produce a second crop, and sometimes the rice plants are tilled under so the field can be planted again. Fields may lay fallow after harvesting. Each field produces two to three crops per year, and Dominion is continually harvesting throughout the year in order to ensure that its mill always has rice to process.^[1] Rice fields are 40 to 70 acres each, and about 10 fields might be harvested at any given time.

Rice mill at Dominion Farms. February 22, 2012.

As the combine harvests, another large piece of equipment removes the rice and brings it to the mill, allowing the combine to continually harvest without stopping. At the mill, the rice is first dried, then it is processed. The mill first removes large and small impurities in the rice, and Dominion sells the small impurities as chicken feed. The husks are removed and used as mulch on Dominion's banana trees. The mill sorts out stones from the rice, and removes the bran and the germ, which are each sold as animal feed. The remaining white rice is polished, graded, and bagged.^[1] They are sold under the brand name "Prime Harvest." As of 2011, the processing plant had the capacity to process 10,000 tonnes of rice per day. At the time, they produced 3,500-4000 tonnes per year and hoped to double it by the end of 2012. When the entire 17,050 acres is in full production, they hope to produce 10,000-12,000 tons of rice per year.^[3]

Because the rice is grown as a monoculture over a large area and because it is grown season after season without any crop rotation, Dominion must use large amounts of chemical fertilizer and pesticides. Dominion grows two rice varieties, referred to as 103 and 107, which provide high yields and mature quickly. High yielding lowland rice varieties tend to be dwarf varieties that are highly responsive to fertilizer, allowing them to grow lots of grain without causing the plant to topple over. Because these high yielding varieties are short, weeds must be controlled so they do not compete with the rice for sun. Dominion uses both a pre-emergent and a post-emergent herbicide, as well as hand weeding and flooding fields to control weeds.

Tilapia Production

Tilapia pond at Dominion Farms. February 22, 2012.

Another major product of the farm is tilapia, both full-sized fish and fingerlings. As of 2011, they were the main contract supplier for the Kenyan government's ESP programme, providing it with two million fingerlings per month. At the time the farm operated eight trial fish ponds each with the capacity of holding 80,000 fish and planned to set up tens of ponds in a massive fish cropping programme to cover 160 acres of land. At that point, they were breeding Nile Perch and cat fish on a trial basis, in addition to tilapia. The farm's tilapia sold locally for 200 Kenyan shillings per kg (about US$2.40).^[3]

When farming tilapia, farmers can increase production by only raising male fish. This is because females put much of their energy into breeding instead of weight gain. To ensure all of the fish are male, Dominion treats young fish with a hormone for a month, turning all of the females to males.^[1]

Other Minor Products

In addition to rice and tilapia, Dominion also produces bananas. As of February 2012, it had just begun to produce and process soybeans in newly reclaimed land to see whether the crop might be a viable product to produce going forward.^[1] A 2011 article stated "Dominion Farms is venturing into the large scale production of Soya beans. The soya beans are a chief ingredient in the production of fish, chicken and dog feeds which the farm produces."^[3]

As of 2011, the farm also had a herd of 100 heifers "in a test programme for dairy and beef production and hopes to build a herd of 600 cattle for milk and beef production in the next two years. Plans are also under way to roll out a brand of dog feed and a porridge mix to retail under the same name."^[3]

Two last ventures are a biogas digester and a hydro-power production plant. "The energy generated from the facilities will complement the propane that is usually used to run the heavy machinery at the farm mills. In addition to this, surplus energy will be sold to the national grid and distributed to the locals."^[3]

Land Reclamation

Before farming can begin on the land owned by Dominion, the natural swamp must be "reclaimed." To do this, Dominion uses bulldozers and land planes to clear the land and then performs primary and secondary tillage using disc plows or serrated disc plows. To remove natural vegetation, Dominion burns it.

According to Burgess in 2011:

"Our initial step was to stop the flow of water to the swamp and we built 12km of dykes that ran from the dam down to Lake Namboyo and basically relocate the river. We split it and sent part of it into Lake Kanyaboli and part of it to Lake Namboyo".

"This stopped the water from flowing into the swamp and the next step for Mr Burges and his team was to drain the water.

"For the last three years we have been draining it to lower the water table and as this goes down we start developing the land". The process is challenging and though heavily mechanised, relies on the course of nature and cannot be rushed.

"The land dries from the top down and you have to wait for it to dry substantially before you can use any equipment on it which makes the process painstakingly slow. In addition to this, rain water reverses the drainage process and takes you back to the beginning."^[3]

Relationship with Bordering Communities

According to Dominion

Dominion touts itself as Kenya's hope for economic growth, jobs, and development:^[8]

"The business of Kenya is agriculture – the principal source of income for 75% of the nation’s population. Yet agriculture accounts for only 25% of the Gross Domestic Product. As a result, 75% of Kenyans depend on a technically inefficient industry whose average labor input is three times greater than its output. Due to its dominance, any change in the agricultural sector translates to changes in the entire economy. Efforts to grow the economy and reduce poverty must begin with agriculture.

"For the majority of Kenyans, farming exists mainly for subsistence. The level and scale of crop production is geared towards satisfying household requirements.

"When Calvin Burgess first visited the Yala Swamp in 2002, it was accessible only via all-terrain vehicle. As there was no commerce in the area, neither were there jobs, currency in circulation nor hope for improvement. But the residents were determined to break out of the cycle of poverty associated with their tiny acreages and limited access to markets. Dominion’s local payroll has done wonders for the health, wealth and attitude of hundreds of employees and thousands who benefit indirectly from the circulation of hard currency. And the farm has provided an example for smaller farmers to emulate in order to render their operations more productive and profitable.

"The area around the farm allows for an ideal farming environment. Water is plentiful, the climate is cool and the fields produce at least two crops per annum. Add the components of cost-effective labor and regional food deficiencies and the area offers an exceptional farming scenario. The impact of two crops per annum cannot be overstated in a large-scale application. It is the financial equivalent of doubling the size of an efficient commercial farm at zero added cost. For a nation that imports more than 200,000 tons of rice annually from India, Pakistan and Southeast Asia, the continuous planting and harvesting of rice on a commercial scale is a welcome activity."

According to the Locals

Dilapidated housing of rural Kenyans living next to Dominion Farms in Bondo District, Kenya. February 22, 2012.

Dominion's immediate neighbors, shown in photos to the left and right, are not among the "hundreds of employees and thousands who benefit indirectly" from the "wonders" Dominion has done for their "health, wealth and attitude." Their homes are small and sometimes in poor condition, and while some have electricity, most lack running water. These communities traditionally relied on the Yala River and Yala Swamp as their water sources. Because Dominion has redirected the Yala River through its weir to use it in irrigating rice paddies and in their tilapia ponds, the company has directed some of the water to areas outside of its gates. Here, locals come to gather water and carry it back to their homes.

Mud hut with thatched roof just outside of Dominion Farms in Siaya District, Kenya. February 22, 2012.

Despite its large size, Dominion is not a very large employer as most of its operations (planting, harvesting, milling) are mechanized. Among its approximately 400 employees are some locals who are employed in weeding, transplanting rice, and scaring birds by shaking containers for of rocks. Many of the more skilled jobs are given to college educated Kenyans who come from outside the local area. Dominion also subcontracts with a security company that employs 100 people as security personnel. Nearby farms of local inhabitants are typically between two and five acres, with large families working on them and occasionally a few hired farmworkers as well. Thus, the land area of Dominion Farms provides fewer jobs than an equivalent amount of land in this area that is devoted to small family farms.^[1]

Additionally, when the land occupied by Dominion Farms was natural swampland, it was utilized by locals as a place to gather fuel, wild foods, animal fodder, and materials for building and handicrafts. The swamp also provided ecosystem services to the area as a filter for sediment and pollutants and a refuge for fish species that have long ago disappeared from Lake Victoria. Today, instead of living alongside a swamp that filters out biocides, local communities are exposed to drift and water contamination from frequent pesticide spraying by the crop dusting planes and other machines over Dominion's large area.^[1]

A 2009 Business Week article provides a particularly damning assessment of Dominion's impact on locals.^[4] A major complaint was property loss and destruction of property. For example:

"Charles Onyango Apiyo, 39, raises cattle in Siaya. A year ago, he says, 10 of his cows wandered onto Dominion property. The entire herd of 150 was confiscated by company employees and taken to a police station. The cattle were held for almost two weeks, during which time 20 died, Apiyo says. More perished from dehydration on the trek back to his land. In an interview on the side of a dusty road, he says he has received nothing for his losses."

"Before the company's arrival, tens of thousands of farming and herding families used parts of the Yala wetlands now occupied by Dominion. Many of these residents have lost access to land they considered theirs. As a legal matter, land rights were held by the various government bodies that leased tracts to Dominion, according to the Lands Ministry. Scores of homes where Dominion now operates were relocated to make way for a dam and reservoir the company built. Burgess says about 50 families were compensated as a result. Chris Owalla, a local community organizer, estimates that 300 families were displaced.

Burgess says owners were paid amounts roughly double the worth of their properties. Residents say the compensation—typically 4,600 Kenyan shillings, or about $60 per home—was inadequate."

Locals were also disappointed in the lack of jobs provided and the low pay for workers:

"Burgess says Dominion employs 700 local people in various capacities. But villagers dispute this. In 2003 the company hired some 200 people to pull weeds and chase away birds, according to Owalla. As the Dominion farm became more mechanized, jobs dwindled, the activist and local residents say.

"During a reporter's visit to the area over three days, some 40 women were observed working at any one time in the Dominion rice paddies. Three men operated tractor equipment along the road. Several of the women said in interviews that they earn less than 200 shillings a day, the equivalent of $3. They declined to give their names for fear of losing their jobs."^[4]

"During severe rains in 2007, Odindo says most of his crops were destroyed by flooding he blames on a nearby dam that Dominion built. He holds up worn photos showing his farm almost totally submerged. "We have never seen that kind of flooding before," he says. More than 1,000 homes were damaged, and some were swept completely away, he adds.

"Jackson Oware, who lives nearby, has placed small markers where five of his mud huts stood before the flooding destroyed them. "We are not sure when to replant because it could all be washed away again," Oware says.

"Burgess says the ferocity of the storm caused the damage. "We were in no way responsible for this flooding," he adds. "These people just want someone to blame.""^[4]

Burgess dismisses locals' claims to the land and disparages their farms and culture:

"I disagree when people say, 'Oh, you have to preserve the local culture,'" he says. "If you preserve it, people will starve, and you won't have a culture to preserve." He plays down the idea that land formerly used for subsistence agriculture has now been monopolized by Dominion. Farms that surround his company's property are little more than "unproductive gardens," he says. Most of the area his company now cultivates simply wasn't being used before, he says. "No one was there."^[4]

Pollution was another complaint.

"Since Dominion's arrival, [residents] say, drinking water from the Yala River has a metallic taste they attribute to the company's use of fertilizer. Odindo says Dominion's spraying of pesticides has sickened some animals. "Every home has a dead cow or dead goat," he says.

"A soil and water analysis in August, paid for by the antipoverty group ActionAid International, concluded that people shouldn't drink from the Yala River. Among the concerns mentioned in the analysis are the presence of dieldrin, a chemical ingredient in some pesticides that has been linked to breast cancer and Parkinson's disease. The Environmental Protection Agency banned dieldrin in the U.S. in 1987."^[4]

However, Burgess claims the farm does not use insecticides, only fertilizers and herbicides. A former manager (Grahame Vetch, manager from 2004 to 2007) says that they did use pesticides "to battle crop-eating pests, such as the quelea bird."^[4] This was reiterated by a Dominion employee in Quality Assurance, who said in 2012 that pesticides were used to kill the quelea bird.^[9] The chemical used was likely Fenthion. When asked about other pests, she said "You know, aphids? Then there is the stem borer. Those are the main ones. So we just control them." When asked how they were controlled, she replied, "We just use the aerial spray."

As of 2009, Dominion had made several promises to help the local community, which community members felt were not being kept. Among the promises were 300 acres of land for residents to use communally and rehabilitating at least one school and one health clinic in each of Siaya and Bondo districts. As of 2009, they had renovated one health facility, although "residents say they have trouble reaching the small facility because the road to it runs through Dominion's farm and company security officers sometimes deny them access." At the time, no schools had been renovated "although Dominion has donated building materials for those projects."^[4] As for the 300 acres:

"By all accounts, the 300 acres Dominion has set aside for communal farming hasn't been used for that purpose. The reasons are in dispute. Burgess blames local officials for keeping people off the land. The officials want to supervise the farming and collect the profits, he alleges. Local farmers, in contrast, say that when they tried to plant crops, they were blocked by the company or saw their maize and rice uprooted by Dominion bulldozers, according to Owalla, the community organizer. Burgess denies these accusations. It is difficult for an outsider to get to the bottom of the matter."^[4]

In a rebuttal to the 2009 Business Week article, Burgess denied and contradicted many of the article's claims, saying:^[10]

"My heart sank as I tried to understand how a senior journalist for Business Week chose not to use this opportunity to cover a revolutionary way of doing business in Africa that combines Western agribusiness practices to employ hundreds of locals and feed thousands throughout the country. Instead, she used this respected business magazine as a platform to promote a misguided social agenda."

In the rebuttal, he claims that the number of families displaced could not have exceeded 94, based on the number of land titles that existed in the area. However, families in Kenya often do not have titles to their ancestral land. He also cites the lack of homes and buildings within the swamp itself, ignoring the fact that locals used the swamp for many purposes without actually constructing homes within it. About the jobs provided by the farm, he said: "Dominion currently employs between 600-700 people, approximately 350 of which are permanent employees while the others are casual workers who perform seasonal field work as needed." He also denies any control over or blame for the flooding in 2007. However, wetlands such as swamps often serve as a buffer against extreme weather, containing the capacity to absorb large amounts of rainfall. With the draining of the swamp and the construction of the dykes, it's quite possible (if not probable) that the large amount of rain in 2007 led to floods that would not have happened had the swamp remained in place. Additionally, Burgess notes his operation's work to clean toxins out of the water. This is a function that the swamp had already naturally performed before Dominion removed it.

As for the 300 acres set aside for locals to use, a 2011 article about a major protest by local farmers against Dominion noted that the company "had initially allowed the community to cultivate 150 acre piece of land both sides for Siaya and Bondo districts and even added them another 300 acres but the agreement was that they would vacate when the Company wants to use it."^[11] That time came in 2011 and "the Dominion farm management sent tractors into the community farms which the farmers had allegedly encroached and refused to vacate as was agreed."

Wildlife Observed at Dominion Farms

Despite heavy use of pesticides and other agrochemicals, Dominion is home to abundant and diverse wildlife species. These include the following birds:^[1]

African spoonbill (Platalea alba)
Red-chested Sunbird (Nectarinia erythrocerca)
Crested Crane (Balearica regulorum)
Hammerkop (Scopus umbretta)
African Sacred Ibis (Threskiornis aethiopicus)

Also observed were large monitor lizards measuring approximately three to four feet long.^[1]

Bondo District, Kenya

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Bondo District, Kenya is a district bordering Lake Victoria in Kenya's Nyanza Province. The majority ethnic group there are the Luo. Bondo District was only recently created - before it was included in nearby Siaya District. As of 2007, it was the second poorest district in Kenya.^[1] The district's main livelihoods are agriculture and fishing. Figures from 2001-2004 show that approximately 47.2% of the population is poor and 41.1% of households live below the poverty line.^[1] As of 2007, the HIV/AIDS rate in Bondo was 23.6%, and 34% of the population had malaria.^[1]

Dominion in Nigeria

Management

Calvin Burgess, President^[12]
Chris Abir, Director of Community Development
Enos McWere, Aquaculture Manager

Contact Information

818 North Oak Street
Guthrie, Oklahoma 73044
Ph: (405) 346-5810
Fax: (405) 346-9817
Web: http://www.dominion-farms.com

References

↑ Management Team, Dominion Farms, Accessed February 26, 2012.

Farm Management Team
Calvin Burgess, President
Following his 1972 graduation from the British Columbia Institute of Technology, Calvin Burgess managed a major construction company in Victoria, B.C. Upon moving to the U.S. in 1976, he worked briefly for general contractors in Texas and Oklahoma before establishing Canam Construction Company in 1977 in Edmond, Oklahoma. Within 15 years of its founding, Canam had become the largest general construction firm headquartered in the Oklahoma City area. Between 1986 and 2005 when Canam exited the construction business, Dominion/Canam built 3.2 million square feet of essential public buildings – all under the fast-track, design-build approach to development.

Mr. Burgess formed Dominion Leasing in 1986 to pursue the privatization of previously traditional government functions. Dominion’s success in the development of public projects led to the creation of a number of affiliated companies providing a broad range of services to federal, state and local governments. Dominion Properties developed and still owns one of the largest aggregation of office buildings leased to the U.S. Government. Dominion has developed more high-security prisons than any other privately owned company in the U.S. Several of Mr. Burgess’ entities have pioneered their fields of work and have materially advanced the concept of privatization.

In pursuit of his interest in aviation, Mr. Burgess established Spirit Wing Aviation in 1988 to own and operate corporate aircraft. This company’s mission has expanded into the restoration of vintage aircraft and the engine modification of early models of Learjet aircraft with Williams FJ44 fanjets. Designs and components developed by Spirit Wing for business and military jets are valued by some of the world’s largest aerospace companies.

Mr. Burgess is active in the organization and operation of faith-based missions focused on the citizens of poor and developing nations, including his personal investment in Dominion Farms Ltd. As its principal officer and investor, he spends one-third of his time at the farm and manages it remotely from Oklahoma the remainder of the time.

Chris Abir, Director of Community Development
Chris, along with his wife Florence, brings a wealth of experience in teaching and evangelistic work to Dominion. Their degrees in education have served them well during the past seven years as operators of a Christian school in Nyanza Province comprising of a pre-school and a primary school with a special-needs unit. Before that they served churches and evangelistic organizations in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Zambia as trainers, bible school teachers, guidance counselors and providers of home-based hospice services. Their current efforts are directed at training and counseling local youth and young adults in practical vocations and in critical life skills at the Dominion Training Center. Dominino Farms is proud to have them lead their fellow Kenyans to a more fruitful future.

Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 1 - Dominion Farms, Part 1 | 0 comments

Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 1 - Dominion Farms, Part 1

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 05, 2012 at 21:05:03 PM PDT

On my 17th day in Kenya, I visited Dominion Farms, a U.S.-owned enormous rice farm that sits in between Bondo and Siaya Districts in Nyanza Province. To describe it, words come to mind like "unmitigated disaster" and "nightmare." See below.

You can find the rest of the Kenya series here.

Jill Richardson :: Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 1 - Dominion Farms, Part 1

My introduction to Dominion Farms first came from a document called "Land grabbing in Kenya and Mozambique A report on two research missions - and a human rights analysis of land grabbing," published by the FIAN International Secretariat in 2010.

The Yala Swamp wetlands are located on the northeastern shoreline of Lake Victoria and are crossed by the equator. It is one of the most important riparian and floodplain wetlands around the lake, and indeed one of the largest in Kenya. The swamp forms the mouth of both the Nzoia and Yala Rivers and is a freshwater deltaic wetland arising from backflow of water from Lake Victoria as well as the rivers' floodwaters. It provides a very important habitat for refugee populations of certain fish species which have otherwise disappeared from the lake. The wetlands cover an area commonly cited as 17,500 hectares (175 km2) and contain three freshwater lakes: Kanyaboli (1,500 hectares), Sare, and Namboyo. Other reports suggest that the swamp is much larger with a total area of 38,000 - 52,000 hectares. The swamp stretches 25 km from W-E and 15 km from N-S at the lakeshore.
This huge wetland ecosystem, third largest in the country after the Lorian Swamp and the Tana River Delta, provides major ecological and hydrological functions and is a major source of livelihoods for the neighboring communities. It is a highly productive ecosystem. According to Birdlife International, "The Yala swamp complex is by far the largest papyrus swamp in the Kenyan sector of Lake Victoria, making up more than 90% of the total area of papyrus. The swamp acts as a natural filter for a variety of biocides and other agricultural pollutants from the surrounding catchment, and also effectively removes silt before the water enters Lake Victoria. The site supports an important local fishery for the Luo and Luhya people who live to its south and north, respectively".

Remember what malaria expert Andrew Githeko said about papyrus swamps. They don't have any malaria. Clear the swamp and turn it into a rice paddy and the malarial mosquitoes will thank you.

The Yala swampland is a trust land under the custody of the Siaya and Bondo County councils on behalf of the government. With a population of about half a million, it is densely populated. For a long time, the local people accessed it and used it in their various daily activities on a free access basis. With the entry and take over by a US based company in 2003, this came to an abrupt halt and resulted in a loss of one of the most important assets for the local community to secure their livelihoods - the land.
In 2003, Dominion Farms Ltd, a subsidiary of Dominion Group of Companies based in Edmond, Oklahoma, USA, made its appearance in the Yala swamp. The initial proposal was that Dominion would engage in rice production, in part of the swamp known as Area I, covering about 2,300 hectares. This land portion had been reclaimed by the Lake Basin Development Authority (LBDA) before 1970 and previously used for agricultural activity, mainly to produce cereals, pulses and horticultural crops. Later in the same year, Dominion entered into a lease agreement with both the Siaya and Bondo County Councils covering 6,900 hectares of the 17,500 hectare wetlands under the Yala Swamp Integrated Development Project for duration of 25 years, with a possibility of extension. Eventually, Dominion proposed to cover the entire swamp region of 17,500 hectares.
Dominion was ushered in by a coalition of local politicians and evangelical pastors who even organized massive demonstrations in favor of the investment. At the beginning there was much optimism among the population: Dominion had promised jobs, school, clinics and an upsurge of the local economy in general. The infrastructure left behind by LBDA was worn down and poverty was rife in the malaria-infested swamp region.

However, disillusion set in soon. According to residents of Siaya and Bondo counties, there was employment for some 200 workers for no more than six months when brushwood and undergrowth was removed in the area. For instance, a 60 year old man was hired as a subcontractor with a team of twelve. The workers were paid 200 shillings per day (approximately 2.6 USD) and the team leader received an additional 50 shillings. Today, according to the villagers in Bondo and Siaya,there is permanent employment only for a handful of watchmen (60, according to Dominion's homepage) who are paid around 7,000 shillings (approximately 90 USD) per month. A watchman questioned by the research team at the gate of Dominion farm refused to reveal details about his contract and said that he was not allowed to speak to strangers.
In the rice fields, women can be seen armed with sticks to chase away the birds which prey on the cereal. According to villagers, they have to stand in the mud from dusk to dawn for a miserable pay and even remain there when the plantation is sprayed with pesticides. Neighbors suspect it is DDT as fowl and plants have died after the spraying. There is ample evidence of poisoned fowl and plants in the vicinity of the plantation. Villagers claim that even the cattle are destroyed by contaminated water. When interviewed, a villager replied "We took the livestock to market and found that the liver was rotten. We had to bury them, could not even allow dogs to eat them." Dominion is indeed alleged to have sought an exemption from the worldwide ban of DDT from Kenya's Ministry of Health supposedly to combat malaria. The incidence of malaria, however, is still high. Some claim it is higher now than before Dominion built dykes and cut off the natural flow of the swamp waters.

Charming place, huh? About the DDT, I personally saw no evidence and I heard rumors they were using carbofuran but could not get my source to give me any credible proof or way to verify that. But they certainly are spraying something - I saw it myself and took pictures. The number of people employed has grown a bit too, although not by much, and it appears that locals only get the unskilled, low wage jobs while educated outsiders get the higher paid positions. By the time I visited in February 2012, the women standing in rice paddies scaring away birds had shifted from shaking sticks at them to containers filled with rocks.

In 2003, an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) was commissioned by the NEMA for large-scale rice production. Authorities approved the EIA specifically for rice irrigation in a 2,300 hectare-area (about 13% of the Yala Swamp territory). Almost immediately Dominion began building irrigation dykes and a weir, airstrips and roads, and announced plans to build a hydroelectric plant and a major aquaculture venture, including fish farms, a fish processing factory and a fish mill factory, all of which could damage a fragile ecosystem far beyond the designated 2,300 hectare area.
Dominion Farm Limited operates on the basis of a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by Dominion directors and the chairmen of Bondo and Siaya county councils in May, 2003. According to this MoU, the councils pledge to lease to Dominion another 3,200 hectares approximately ("the Additional Area") in addition to 3,700 hectares - in total 6,900 hectares - set aside for large scale agricultural purposes. The MoU makes no reference to those who may live on the land earmarked for lease to Dominion. A lawyer in Nairobi, who was commissioned by the Institute of Law and Environmental Governance, assumes that there must be thousands of people who have been in occupation of the land by virtue of ancestral rights. One analysis criticizes that "no mention is made of these people. It is inconceivable that 3700 hectares of arable/agricultural land in a rural area would be lying idle without even persons who may be referred to as squatters. Provision must therefore be made for the original occupants. In my view, the County Councils should have given these individuals first priority if this land was required to be allocated or leased out to anyone."
Indeed, there are entire villages of farmers whose families had been there for generations in the "Additional Area". The majority do not have any titles to prove their claims. Some, however, had actually purchased the land and were assigned a parcel number which was supposed to be later replaced by a formal title deed. For example, the father of a 33 year old farmer from Aduwa village bought eight acres (roughly three hectares) of land in 1975. The soil is extremely fertile which has made the family quite prosperous...
In 2004, Dominion offered to buy his land for 45,000 shillings/acre (approximately 600 USD), roughly a third of the market price. The farmer refused because he knew that for the meager compensation he would be unable to buy a plot the same size and equal quality anywhere else. One acre yields 24 bags of maize per harvest. At a price of 3,000 shillings (about 400USD) per bag of maize and two harvests a year, each acre produces around 144,000 shillings (around 1,893USD), more than thrice what Dominion offered to pay for the land. A few weeks after refusing to sell his land, the farmer found his fields flooded and his crops destroyed. He is sure that Dominion had opened the sluices of the weir to inundate the plots of stubborn farmers. When he complained, he was chased by the police "who were ferried in Dominion vehicles."
The same happened to another farmer. Of a nine acre plot, eight acres were flooded. Dominion paid 45,000 shillings for this one acre and took the whole plot. The farmer says he accepted out of need. When he went to complain about the flooding, Dominion sent him to the county council as the owner of the land: "The county council said, the area is for government, you cool down, nothing will be done." In another case, a 29 year old farmer, whose father possesses 15 acres in Syaia county directly adjacent to the Dominion estate, reports that an offer by Dominion to buy his parcel came immediately after six acres were flooded. The family refused. A woman 60 years of age from Yoro village, Bondo, says that the deliberate flooding of her land, inherited from her late husband who died in 1989, destroyed her crops of maize, beans, vegetables, 40 heads of cattle and five houses. Another farmer, 50 years old, who lives in the same village, lost 30 heads of cattle, 45 sheep and 60 goats in a flooding. Complaints with the local authorities were not attended. According to InterPress Service (ips) "the government has dismissed such allegations saying it is not aware of any complaints from communities in the Yala River area."
"The idea behind the flooding is a way of pushing people away", says a member of Siaya County Council. He alleges that Dominion controls all the local institutions: "They even managed to bribe the media. When floods occur you won't see media." The member, who has been campaigning against Dominion for several years, says that he was offered the post of PR officer by Dominion with a monthly salary of 120,000 shillings, airtime for the mobile phone of 7,000 shillings per week, and a car with fuel. He refused. The member, who wants to be reelected in 2011 and become chairman of the county council, accuses local politicians of having accepted bribes: "Some MPs have built their houses with Dominion money". The mansion of a former MP stands on a hill overlooking the Southern shore of Lake Kanyaboli. It is fenced in and guarded by a watchman. The power line ends at his house. He is the man who initially brought Dominion to the swamp.

So... welcome to Dominion... My goal was to find out how much of this report I could personally verify by visiting and see what else there was to know about Dominion Farms.

Tags: Global Land Grab, Dominion Farms, Kenya, Bondo District, (All Tags)

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Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 2 - Dominion Farms, Part 2

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 05, 2012 at 22:03:33 PM PDT

You can find the rest of the Kenya series here.

Jill Richardson :: Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 2 - Dominion Farms, Part 2

To get a tour of Dominion Farms, you need an appointment. Malaki's cousin used to work at Dominion, and he hooked Amy and Malaki (my hosts) up with a contact there, who gave them an appointment.

We drove from Malaki's village to Dominion, arriving at a large, guarded gate on the Bondo side of the swamp. There was some confusion as we tried to get in. The guard did not want to let us in, it seemed, and Amy tried to call her contact's cell phone. He kept telling her he was busy with a big group of Nigerians, but as luck had it, he was right near us - and so were all of the Nigerians. As he talked to the guard and helped secure our admission, the Nigerians kept trying to take pictures of us strange-looking white people, shoving cameras right in our faces.

Once we were through the gate with instructions to go to the office to sign in, we were on our own. I had a smudge on my camera lens, but we could see - and I took pictures of - a combine in the field and a crop duster spraying god knows what from the sky.

Both outside and inside the gate, one could see people carrying water or other things on their heads. All around, we could see a diverse array of birds, which made me really excited to see them, and horrifically sad that they were losing their habitat and ingesting pesticides.

African spoonbill

Chemical sludge in the water

Crested Cranes. You always see them in pairs.

Not sure about the species of these

A kind of grainy close-up, in case someone else can recognize 'em

That dust cloud is NOT just the smudge on my camera lens. Is that simply exhaust fumes or is it the topsoil eroding away?

At last, we reached the office, which was just outside Dominion's Siaya gate.

Just outside the office, which has more security

For a tour, Dominion charges a hefty fee for each small tour bus, and more for a large tour bus. Amy tried to bargain the price down since we were just a small car with three adults and a baby, and because they were locals. Shouldn't locals have inexpensive access to see this farm that is right in their backyard? Apparently not. I paid the full fee for our "tour bus" of three people, Amy signed the guest book, and we were officially "in."

With that, a tour guide got in our car, and off we went. We might have been lucky because she was new - we were the first group she gave a tour to - and she wasn't very good at evading questions she wasn't supposed to answer. However, on the flipside, she also didn't know a lot of answers to questions we asked.

The guide - a very attractive woman who had recently graduated college - began by saying that in 2003, Calvin Burgess, the founder, began Dominion Farms. They began by clearing the land and preparing fields for rice farming. But before they were ready to do rice, they had a few other projects like growing maize that they did in the meantime. Once the land was ready for rice, they let the other projects go.

Guide: The reason we stopped growing maize is that the land on which you grow maize does not need as much preparation as the land on which you grow rice. So on your left, you see the rice, and you see the bananas? That's rice husk. We use it for mulching to get rid of the grass.
So basically, the rice milling we started in 2006 and it's been going on strong. So we have almost 4000 acres we've reclaimed. This was all a swamp. There used to be nothing here. It was just a total swamp. So we had to reclaim it. If you go to the weir, you'll see how we reclaimed it. We use the water for many things. There is rice. If you go this way, there is rice. There is, of course, fish, and that's basically it. And then there's domestic use on the other side. That is, like, houses.
Amy Lint: How many workers are here?
Guide: I'm not very sure but I think not more than 400.
AL: So everybody has housing on property or does some come from outside?
Guide: Most of them are the villagers.
AL: I mean, so they stay outside the compound?
Guide: Yeah, they stay in their homes.
AL: Some commute?
Guide: It's a very short distance, like 10 minutes. So they just walk from their houses.
Here, what you are seeing is a flooded field. It has been planted, and then after planting we put in water immediately. Then it stays for four to five days.

A just planted flooded rice field

Guide: Then we drain out the water and harden the crop. We let it get used to the sun, because we don't do wet farming. We do not put it in water from day 1 to the end. So that means if we do not harden it off, it may die easily. So after four to five days we drain it, leave it to harden for one month, we flash back water, and wait for it to mature.

An unflooded field being hardened off.

At this point, I was getting into my groove. I'd seen some rice in the Philippines but then I read an entire dissertation about the International Rice Research Institute, so I had a few questions for her...

Me: So you don't transplant?
Guide: No, we don't transplant. That's what we do back where I come from. Here we just do direct seeding.
[Historically, rice was always planted in a seedbed and then transplanted into the field. During the Green Revolution, IRRI was very interested in finding a way to direct seed the rice and skip the transplanting step. So the fact that they direct seed is interesting for that reason.]
Me: Do you use a machine, or do people do the direct seeding by hand?
Guide: We use machines. You'll see them. That's where we are going. The first stop will be machinery.
Me: Do you know the variety you grow?
Guide: Yes. It's a special breed that was actually made here. It's - okay, they are just numbers. It's 103 and 107.
Me: Are they early maturing?
[Another goal of the Green Revolution. If the rice matures quickly, then you can grow several crops on the same land each year.]
Guide: They take 120 days.
AL: So what are all these people doing here?
Guide: The ladies at the end? They are either gapping or weeding, but considering the field, they must be gapping. That means, once we have grown the seed and you drained off the water, there isn't 100% viability. Some seed doesn't grow. So there are some fields that we have to grow seedlings that we use to fill in the gaps so that we have a full crop. So that's what they are doing.
Me: So you do that by hand and weeding by hand?
Guide: Weeding is also done by hand.
Me: Do you also use some herbicides?
Guide: Yes. We have an integrated method of controlling weeds. That is the manual method of hand weeding, then there is the selective herbicide, and there is also the flooding. You know, rice is a friend of water, so it grows well in water. But other plants do not grow in water.
Me: Do you know which herbicides are the best ones to use?
Guide: Maybe we can ask somebody else. But there is a plane that is going around right now, and it is spraying the herbicides. It also sprays fungicides and fertilizer.
Me: All of that together?
Guide: No, we have a schedule.
AL: What's the schedule? How often?
Guide: We try to minimize the chemicals we use. But there is a pre-emergent and a post-emergent herbicide. That means before the weeds start to grow, then after the rice has started growing and the weeds as well.
So this is a harvester. We use a combined harvester. So here we've already harvested it. We may leave it like this and get another crop. It's called a rattoon. Or we may just cultivate it again and wait another 120 days. But if it's a rattoon, it only takes two months and the cost of production is much much lower.
Me: Is this ready to harvest?
Guide: Yeah, this is ready to harvest.

Mature rice

Stuff growing among the rice. I thought I saw something move in there and tried to see if it was a frog or something, but saw nothing.

AL: How many acres are under production at once? Do you use the same land every time or do you rotate?
Guide: We have to do rotation. When this harvest is ending, the next one is ready, so that the mill always has rice.
AL: And how many acres is under cultivation at one time?
Guide: Right now, we are harvesting like 10 fields and the acreage is like between 40 and 70 acres each field. And we are harvesting ten of them right now. And that will last us until the next harvest. So as you see, it's different stages. So there's a program that's used to run that.
So this is basically our machinery area. We have tractors. We have the disc plow, this is our lawn mower. We have serrated disc plows and just plain disc plows.
Let me just go through the land reclamation process. What happens, there's the really, really big ones. There's the bulldozers and the land planes that go and clear the land first of all. Then we go and till it, primary and secondary tillage. After that, maybe we go and dig the ground and then put in the seeds, and compact the soil so that it doesn't wash off the seeds.
Malaki Obado: How do you fuel it?
Guide: Oh yeah we have fueling stations, three of them.
MO: Within the farm?
Guide: Yes, within the premises. So a tanker comes and brings the fuel.
AL: For how long do you plan to grow rice here?
Guide: Umm, I don't think we are ever planning to stop.
AL: Like, who owns the land. Isn't it the Kenyan government?
Guide: Yes. I don't have access to the agreement, so I don't know how long.

Coming up in the next diary: Dominion's canals and weir, tilapia farming, and the mill.

Tags: Bondo District, Kenya, Dominion Farms, Global Land Grab, (All Tags)

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Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 2 - Dominion Farms, Part 2

by: Jill Richardson

Tue Jun 05, 2012 at 22:03:33 PM PDT

You can find the rest of the Kenya series here.

Jill Richardson :: Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 2 - Dominion Farms, Part 2

To get a tour of Dominion Farms, you need an appointment. Malaki's cousin used to work at Dominion, and he hooked Amy and Malaki (my hosts) up with a contact there, who gave them an appointment.

African spoonbill

Chemical sludge in the water

Crested Cranes. You always see them in pairs.

Not sure about the species of these

A kind of grainy close-up, in case someone else can recognize 'em

That dust cloud is NOT just the smudge on my camera lens. Is that simply exhaust fumes or is it the topsoil eroding away?

At last, we reached the office, which was just outside Dominion's Siaya gate.

Just outside the office, which has more security

Guide: The reason we stopped growing maize is that the land on which you grow maize does not need as much preparation as the land on which you grow rice. So on your left, you see the rice, and you see the bananas? That's rice husk. We use it for mulching to get rid of the grass.
So basically, the rice milling we started in 2006 and it's been going on strong. So we have almost 4000 acres we've reclaimed. This was all a swamp. There used to be nothing here. It was just a total swamp. So we had to reclaim it. If you go to the weir, you'll see how we reclaimed it. We use the water for many things. There is rice. If you go this way, there is rice. There is, of course, fish, and that's basically it. And then there's domestic use on the other side. That is, like, houses.
Amy Lint: How many workers are here?
Guide: I'm not very sure but I think not more than 400.
AL: So everybody has housing on property or does some come from outside?
Guide: Most of them are the villagers.
AL: I mean, so they stay outside the compound?
Guide: Yeah, they stay in their homes.
AL: Some commute?
Guide: It's a very short distance, like 10 minutes. So they just walk from their houses.
Here, what you are seeing is a flooded field. It has been planted, and then after planting we put in water immediately. Then it stays for four to five days.

A just planted flooded rice field

Guide: Then we drain out the water and harden the crop. We let it get used to the sun, because we don't do wet farming. We do not put it in water from day 1 to the end. So that means if we do not harden it off, it may die easily. So after four to five days we drain it, leave it to harden for one month, we flash back water, and wait for it to mature.

An unflooded field being hardened off.

Me: So you don't transplant?
Guide: No, we don't transplant. That's what we do back where I come from. Here we just do direct seeding.
[Historically, rice was always planted in a seedbed and then transplanted into the field. During the Green Revolution, IRRI was very interested in finding a way to direct seed the rice and skip the transplanting step. So the fact that they direct seed is interesting for that reason.]
Me: Do you use a machine, or do people do the direct seeding by hand?
Guide: We use machines. You'll see them. That's where we are going. The first stop will be machinery.
Me: Do you know the variety you grow?
Guide: Yes. It's a special breed that was actually made here. It's - okay, they are just numbers. It's 103 and 107.
Me: Are they early maturing?
[Another goal of the Green Revolution. If the rice matures quickly, then you can grow several crops on the same land each year.]
Guide: They take 120 days.
AL: So what are all these people doing here?
Guide: The ladies at the end? They are either gapping or weeding, but considering the field, they must be gapping. That means, once we have grown the seed and you drained off the water, there isn't 100% viability. Some seed doesn't grow. So there are some fields that we have to grow seedlings that we use to fill in the gaps so that we have a full crop. So that's what they are doing.
Me: So you do that by hand and weeding by hand?
Guide: Weeding is also done by hand.
Me: Do you also use some herbicides?
Guide: Yes. We have an integrated method of controlling weeds. That is the manual method of hand weeding, then there is the selective herbicide, and there is also the flooding. You know, rice is a friend of water, so it grows well in water. But other plants do not grow in water.
Me: Do you know which herbicides are the best ones to use?
Guide: Maybe we can ask somebody else. But there is a plane that is going around right now, and it is spraying the herbicides. It also sprays fungicides and fertilizer.
Me: All of that together?
Guide: No, we have a schedule.
AL: What's the schedule? How often?
Guide: We try to minimize the chemicals we use. But there is a pre-emergent and a post-emergent herbicide. That means before the weeds start to grow, then after the rice has started growing and the weeds as well.
So this is a harvester. We use a combined harvester. So here we've already harvested it. We may leave it like this and get another crop. It's called a rattoon. Or we may just cultivate it again and wait another 120 days. But if it's a rattoon, it only takes two months and the cost of production is much much lower.
Me: Is this ready to harvest?
Guide: Yeah, this is ready to harvest.

Mature rice

Stuff growing among the rice. I thought I saw something move in there and tried to see if it was a frog or something, but saw nothing.

AL: How many acres are under production at once? Do you use the same land every time or do you rotate?
Guide: We have to do rotation. When this harvest is ending, the next one is ready, so that the mill always has rice.
AL: And how many acres is under cultivation at one time?
Guide: Right now, we are harvesting like 10 fields and the acreage is like between 40 and 70 acres each field. And we are harvesting ten of them right now. And that will last us until the next harvest. So as you see, it's different stages. So there's a program that's used to run that.
So this is basically our machinery area. We have tractors. We have the disc plow, this is our lawn mower. We have serrated disc plows and just plain disc plows.
Let me just go through the land reclamation process. What happens, there's the really, really big ones. There's the bulldozers and the land planes that go and clear the land first of all. Then we go and till it, primary and secondary tillage. After that, maybe we go and dig the ground and then put in the seeds, and compact the soil so that it doesn't wash off the seeds.
Malaki Obado: How do you fuel it?
Guide: Oh yeah we have fueling stations, three of them.
MO: Within the farm?
Guide: Yes, within the premises. So a tanker comes and brings the fuel.
AL: For how long do you plan to grow rice here?
Guide: Umm, I don't think we are ever planning to stop.
AL: Like, who owns the land. Isn't it the Kenyan government?
Guide: Yes. I don't have access to the agreement, so I don't know how long.

Coming up in the next diary: Dominion's canals and weir, tilapia farming, and the mill.

Tags: Bondo District, Kenya, Dominion Farms, Global Land Grab, (All Tags)

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Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 4 - Dominion Farms, Part 4

by: Jill Richardson

Wed Jun 06, 2012 at 13:02:45 PM PDT

On my 17th day in Kenya, I visited Dominion Farms, a U.S.-owned enormous rice farm that sits in between Bondo and Siaya Districts in Nyanza Province. Below is the last part of the transcript and photos from our tour.

You can find the rest of the Kenya series, including the previous 3 posts on Dominion, here.

Jill Richardson :: Kenya Diaries: Day 17, Part 4 - Dominion Farms, Part 4

The people with me on the tour were my hosts, Amy Lint and Malaki Obado, along with their baby, and our guide. When we left off, we were at the weir, talking about Dominion's use of water from the Yala River. The guide told us about a treatment process they use where they allow the sediment to settle out and then add chlorine to the water. Within Dominion, they have piped water from the river water that they've treated - a huge and rare luxury in this part of Kenya.

Then she mentioned they have some tilapia ponds that hold more than 60,000 fish. She said we couldn't see those ponds, but we could see some other ponds.

Me: Do you know their schedule for land reclamation? What's the total area they plan to reclaim.
Guide: I don't have access to that information.
Me: I am interested in how big this will become and in what year.
Guide: Well, you know Busia? We are going to go up to Busia.
Amy Lint: Whoa!
Guide: So that's like really huge.

You can see how big that would be yourself, but we found out later that she was referring to Busia District, not the town itself, which means it's not as big of an area as Amy first thought:

The marker shows Yala Swamp, where Dominion is now located. It's in between Siaya and Bondo Districts and it includes Lake Kanyaboli, which is home to many very valuable fish species that used to live in Lake Victoria before the introduction of the Nile Perch. Busia is straight north, near the Uganda border.

Guide: Calvin [the owner of Dominion] has a house here, but he comes once every month if he doesn't have any other engagements.

Then the conversation turned to some ponds we were passing.

Guide: So these are some of our green ponds. We have very many ponds, yeah? But we won't visit these ponds, we'll visit the ones in the back.
Malaki Obado: Why do you call it green ponds?
Guide: Because it's on bare land. There is no concrete. The modern ponds, they have concrete down there.
MO: What are you growing in the green ponds?
Guide: We have tilapia and catfish.
MO: OK, together in the same pond?
Guide: No.
MO: If it's a tilapia pond, it's just a tilapia pond?
Guide: Yeah, we actually just have the male fish alone, the female fish alone, unless you want them to brood, then we also have the fingerlings and the mothers. We have separate ponds for every stage and every sex.
Me: What do you feed them?
Guide: OK, for the fish that - OK, normally wild fish would eat, like, insects, little things they find in the water, mud, vegetation but for our fish, we make feeds for them at the fish feed mill. We make it using various material that have high protein, especially.
Me: To make them grow fast?
Guide: Yes.
Me: Do they grow that high protein material here or do they buy it or import it?
Guide: We buy it.

At this point, the conversation turned to the training center. The guide said that they train people on their rice growing techniques. Right now, there was a group of Nigerians being trained and they would go home to start up a Dominion Farm in Nigeria, owned by the same company. But, she said that the Nigerian government was actually paying for the training.

Guide: The people were selected by the government. They are young people. Young people who are selected to learn so they can go and start it themselves.
AL: Are they learning about riding the machinery?
Guide: Yes, and also growing the rice, how to prepare the land, and also many, many - how to mill the rice, package it, and sell it. And how to run the administration, everything.
Me: Do you know how much rice is sold each year?
Guide: Yeah, tons, yes.
Me: How much?
Guide: I don't have the figures off hand, but it's pretty good.
AL: So, do you think they're going to start exporting to India or Dubai as well?
Guide: Not right now. Until when we reach Busia -
AL: You can start going now to the Arab world.
Guide: Yeah.
AL: Because there's a big market for rice.
Guide: Exactly. We were surprised by the demand. Our rice is very nice, tastes good, and it's affordable.
AL: So that'll be all swampland up to Busia?
Guide: I don't know how it looks all the way up to Busia.
AL: I didn't know the swamp went all the way up to Busia.
MO: When she says Busia, she's talking about Busia District. There, the river goes. It kind of touches Bondo, Siaya, and there's Busia kind of at the end.
Guide: So the river is meandering like this, yeah? So in between those meanders, that's the area we are talking about.
AL: So is there a plan to start Dominion Uganda? The Nile and all that?
Guide: I don't know if that was really being thought of.
AL: Who does all the sorting and grading?
Guide: That is at the rice mill, but unfortunately we cannot enter the rice mill. So right now we will go to the rice mill.
[Amy talked her into it later and we did go in]
AL: So this, post-harvest - is it machine too? Or people are doing it?
Guide: What?
AL: Sorting, grading.
Guide: Everything is done by machine, milling, grading, even packaging. The one thing that I see is manpowered is maybe baling. You put the rice in bales, you put it on pallet, then you carry it to the warehouse, but everything else is just machine.
AL: Oh ok. So even sorting rice and such - it's done by machine?
Guide: Yeah.
AL: How do you feel about that? Because there is such a potential to give a lot of jobs to people but it's all done by machine. And at a time when we need jobs. People are ready to work but so many jobs are given to machine.
Guide: OK, um, it's true. Yeah, okay. We really employ very few people.
AL: Like 400 people on all this land? That's really very few people. And even, a quarter, 25 percent of that is security.
Guide: No, the security firm is separate.
Me: A contractor?
AL: Oh, ok.
Guide: Yes. And we work with contractors mainly. Like the cleaners, security.

The cleaners just clean a few white coats they have people wear when working in the mill.

Me: Do you notice many mosquitoes?
Guide: Yeah. Eh, mosquitoes are minimal. I think I am used to it now. Even during the day you can get bitten.
Me: Really. Do they spray for mosquitoes?
Guide: No. But maybe they used to spray at some point. The mosquitoes are really reducing.
Me: After harvest, if you are not going to let the same plants produce a second crop, how long before you plant another crop. Do you leave it to rest?
Guide: Yes. It rests for some time, depending on the nutrients, the analysis.
Me: Like a year, or a month?
Guide: No, it can't be a year. Several months.
Me: So when you say there are four crops a year, it's not four crops in the same field.
Guide: No.
Me: Do you know how many crops you could get in a year in the same field?
Guide: It could be like two, maximum three.
Me: That sounds much more normal. When I heard four I was like 'what?'

At this point, Malaki asked about a machine alongside the harvester. The guide began to explain it and I realized I'd seen the same thing in cornfields in Iowa. You get a machine to take the harvest directly from the harvester and carry it to the mill, and then the harvester can continue working without ever stopping. The guide confirmed that this was the case.

Guide: And also, it minimizes spillages. Human labor, it provides for many people to eat, but mechanization is highly efficient. Like, if we had to hire people to cut the rice, it would be so expensive.
Me: How much would have you have to pay them?
Guide: OK, that is maybe casual labor.

No answer. I wouldn't be surprised if it was something like 200 shillings - $2.40.

AL: At least you harvest the bananas by hand?
Guide: Yes.
AL: There's no banana plucking machines [laughs]
MO: This is jatropha, can you tell me about this?
Guide: It is a project that got started. We were supposed to start producing the fuel, but I don't know. It stalled.

Jatropha, a biofuel crop. They tried it and abandoned it here. They've tried and abandoned many things, including a honey project and a poultry project. They are now working on a soybean project to see if it works as something they might continue in the future.

AL: All this machinery came from the U.S.?
Guide: Yes, by sea.

We finally arrived at the mill, and I took a photo before they told me I wasn't supposed to take pictures.

Ditto on the tilapia ponds. If you look at the corner of the pond, there's an interesting bird sitting there - that's why I took the picture.

The tilapia operation was disgusting. The ponds are made by digging the earth out and then adding a pipe for water to flow in and one to take the water out so that the water flows all the time. Because tilapia are native to this part of the world, I doubt the water needs to be heated like it does in the U.S.

My recording of our visit to the tilapia pond isn't clear. Basically, when the baby tilapia are born, they are transferred into a pond where they are given a hormone that changes all the females to males. They remain there for one month. After that, all of the fish are male. The reason they told us this is because "in fish, we believe that males grow faster." It sounded to me like they make them all male is so that they don't mate. If the females were devoting energy to breeding, then they would grow slower. I've also heard something about how having fertile males and females result in a crowded pond with lots of small fish instead of fewer big ones.

The all male tilapia are fed a feed made in the mill, basically from cheap calories and some vitamin/mineral supplements. This feed is different from the one given to the fish used for breeding, since - if I understand it right - it would make the fish actually too fat to breed.

There are 60 ponds in the part of the farm we visited. They are building more ponds on the other side of the farm. My recording is very hard to hear, and I could not catch how many ponds they plan to build total or how many fish each pond holds, but they plan to make an awful lot of ponds, and each pond holds thousands of fish.

From the fish ponds, we went to the mill. In the mill, the machines do everything. The rice is first sorted to remove large debris and smaller debris. The small debris is sold as animal feed. The husk is removed and used as a mulch. The bran and germ are removed and sold as animal feed. Then the white rice is polished and graded and packaged. Grading is based on the length of the grain.

Finally, as we left, Amy and Malaki bought some fish and rice for dinner and I took a photo of one of the nearby houses. There are communities on either side of the farm, right up to the gates. Since the farm diverted the river, they have made available a few canals of water for locals to use for washing, or drinking, or whatever. You see local people gathering water on either side of the farm. God knows what's in that water.

A house just outside of Dominion on the Siaya side.

A community just outside of Dominion on the Bondo side.

That night, the family ate the tilapia and rice for dinner. I didn't. I'm not eating something that was born female and switched to male with hormones. Nor do I want to eat anything that got sprayed with pesticides from an airplane. Malaki's dad remarked that the locally caught wild tilapia taste sweeter than the fish from Dominion. I held my tongue and didn't tell him how the tilapia at Dominion were produced. I was his guest and did not want to ruin his meal.

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Sunday, April 28, 2013