India to join controversial US-led energy-intensive agribusiness initiative

Sandeep Dikshit

New Delhi, February 23

India plans to join the controversial UAE-American led coalition called AIM4C that advocates energy-intensive agriculture and is already being opposed in Africa for increased greenhouse gas emissions as well as the dominance of the agribusiness interests over voices of local farmers and communities.

Meeting on the margins of the I2U2 (India, Israel, US and the UAE) Business Forum in Abu Dhabi, senior diplomat Dammu Ravi signed a letter expressing the Indian Government’s intention to join the Agriculture Innovation Mission for Climate (AIM4C).

The vastly profitable agribusiness industry is responsible for around a third of human-caused greenhouse gas emissions and a report byNaturesaid industrialised food production being advocated by AIM4C is more energy intensive, with almost a third of food-system emissions coming from energy-related activities.

More than two-thirds of AIM4C’s 300 partners are based in the US or Europe, with just seven per cent in Africa, according to Anna Maine, of the Biodiversity and Biosafety Association of Kenya. “A focus on ag-tech is often hinged on profits for multinational corporations and is not sustainable,” she said while arguing for workable alternatives for resilient agriculture that works with nature.

The AIM4C claims to support “climate-smart agriculture and food systems innovation” but its alliance with known polluters such as PepsiCo and meat producer JBS is an indicator of its dependency on carbon-intensive production methods.

Launched in November 2021, the AIM4C initiative has invested more than $8 billion globally. “With today’s announcement, India joins the more than 275 partners, including 42 governments, who are working to collectively advance AIM4C’s mission,” said a US government news release.

Ben Williamson and Allie Molinaro of Compassion in World Farming have pointed out that AIM4C was launched without public input and only allows participation from governments increasing public investment in agricultural innovation, non-government entities increasing self-financed agricultural R&D, and private entities who already support AIM4C’s objectives. “These barriers to entry leave out smallholder farmers, indigenous peoples and other groups who are disproportionately impacted by factory farming,” they said while pointing out that the AIM4C initiatives champion industry and private research instead of local solutions.

“By focusing on potentially costly solutions that require significant overhead and initial investment, AIM4C enables corporations to use government funding to develop expensive products and push them upon producers for profit, further driving out local economies and pushing ecosystems to the brink with potentially little climate benefit,” they said.