Business ‘Power of Presence’: Foreign Capital, Industry Practices, and Politics of Sustainable Development in Zambian Agriculture

Sustainable Development Goals have brought optimism around ‘agriculture for development’ but also questioned agribusinesses in sustainable development. This paper assesses how an agribusiness’ power exploits domains to exert control over industry governance. Using interviews and group discussions from three smallholder outgrower schemes under Illovo Sugar Plc in Zambia, the paper demonstrates that corporations can deploy the ‘power of presence’ to influence national policy development, and sustainability in regional and local practices. Investment and trade policies currently foster agribusinesses but overlook environmental assessments that expose social and ecological contradictions such as on competing water uses. State-donor relations enable smallholder integration in sugarcane as poverty reduction whilst agribusinesses are limiting their participation through controls on resources and production systems. By analysing power expressions, we show how possibilities of sustainable agriculture and rural development are undermined by agribusiness practices. We suggest that current policy efforts around ‘agriculture for development’ in Zambia are about entrenching power and interests of an agribusiness, neglecting industry expansion and sustainability. The paper highlights the limits and importance of domestic institutions in framing large-scale agricultural investments as well as mediating corporate practices that will be required to provide a greater focus on national planning processes for sustainable agriculture and rural development.