Lessons from Africa and Reflections on Southeast Asia
Asry Kaloko
Susan Payne is a leading figure in African sustainable agriculture and sits on the board of the African Agricultural Council. She recently spoke at a PAF event hosted by Lesley Batchelor about her work in Africa. Her tour of farming challenges and opportunities in Zambia and Mozambique provided very important lessons, not only for Africa but also for other regions such as Southeast Asia where agricultural dynamics are similarly complex.
Payne works in co-owning and operating commercial farms that adopt sustainable practices and uplift the local communities. Activities have ranged from crop diversification, including wheat owing to a wheat shortage and extremely high demand for bread, to banana production, job creation, and investment in basic services such as education and health in Zambia and Mozambique. However, she doesn’t opt out of mentioning the challenges that come her way. Corruption, bureaucracy, and a lack of infrastructure remain big obstacles to overcome. These are challenges which, though the roots are well entrenched in local governance and systemic issues, have broader implications in developing agricultural economies worldwide.
Meanwhile, although relatively rich in fertile lands and a favourable tropical climate, Southeast Asia itself is under rising tensions within its agricultural systems due to rapid urbanisation, deforestation, and extreme weather events. The same way as African counterparts, small-scale farmers are also likely to face difficulties in trying to access the markets, finances, and modern farm technologies.
Another important thing that is learned from Payne’s presentation is the aspect of innovation which she puts forth. She has most excitedly told the stories of how technology could infuse resilience into agriculture, from across water-efficient irrigation systems to crop rotation techniques and turn the most struggling farms into hubs of productivity. Another option is introducing sustainable materials like agricultural waste turned into renewable products-a solution that can also very much benefit Southeast Asia. However, countries in the region have been slower to adopt such innovations, with too little political will and investment in research and development.
Other work by Payne with the Glide Fund, which supports women entrepreneurs in agriculture, also serves as an important reminder of farming’s need for inclusivity. Women often form the backbone of agricultural labour in Southeast Asia but frequently lack access to land ownership and financial resources. If empowered through targeted funding and training, women unleash enormous potential within Southeast Asia’s agricultural workforce.
While the achievements of Payne act as an inspiration, her story also raises some critical questions of scalability and equity. Most sustainable agriculture indeed needs huge upfront investment and long-term vision, which is mostly beyond the realm of economies struggling to catch up with immediate developmental needs. As Payne herself mentioned, farming is a job requiring huge patience for tangible results. This is quite relevant to Southeast Asia, where the governments face a dilemma of choice between the pursuit of short-term economic gains on one side and making long-term investments in sustainability on the other. Besides, political stability cannot be underrated either.
She further quoted special economic zones boosting the growth of agricultural development on the African continent using the examples of Mozambique and Ethiopia. These provide a very potential framework for the attraction of public-private partnerships and FDI. Southeast Asia does have similar efforts through Indonesia with the food estate and Vietnam initiates agricultural exporting zones. However, these efforts are often weakened by issues such as the need for increased governance and conflicts over land use.
Fundamentally, her story represents what is possible for agriculture. Where one treats them as inclusive and innovative, combining technological, financial, and structural change. These are the broad-based implications relevant for Southeast Asia, where one should have increased attention by government policies on investing in technology and infrastructural setup, relationships between small-scale farmers and commercial farmers are strengthened, along with barriers for access to and control over productive resources, particularly for women.
With the demand for more food from our planet and with depreciating climate conditions, Africa and Southeast Asia have become vital in the future of agriculture. Susan Payne’s work endorses what can be achieved when resilience, vision, and commitment come together for sustainability. At this point, the nagging question will be, “Will Southeast Asia meet the challenge?”
Asry Kaloko, recent MA International Relations graduate from the University of Birmingham