Guinea's agriculture and mining sectors strive to complement not compete | Mark Tran

Amid concerns that a rush for its mineral resources could disrupt farming, Guinea is aiming to boost its agricultural productivityAs she ended her presentation to potential investors in London last week, Jacqueline Sultan, Guinea's agriculture minister, directed a plea to her colleague in charge of mining in the front row. "Please protect our red monkeys and our white toads," she said.It was a telling moment at the Invest in Guinea event at the Westbury hotel. Sultan had been outlining Guinea's farming potential and plans to make it an agricultural powerhouse by 2025. But the entreaty indicated the tension between the mining and agriculture sectors in this impoverished, corrupt and mineral-rich country. Guinea boasts huge mineral resources, potentially worth $222bn (£173bn).Some of the world's biggest mining companies – Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton and Newmont – operate in Guinea. It has almost half of the world's reserves of bauxite, which is used to make aluminium, and significant iron ore, gold and diamond reserves. Alpha Condé, 75, who won the country's first democratic election in 2010 and is promising an era of stability and good governance, wants to tap the country's vast resources to alleviate poverty. The government put forward a mining code in September 2011 that includes provisions to combat corruption, protect the environment and review all existing contracts.But the mines overlap heavily with areas earmarked for agricultural development, hence Sultan's concern t...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: Guinea World news guardian.co.uk Natural resources and development Environmental sustainability Features Mining Global development Africa Business Agriculture Source Type: news