04 The contested influence of IFI’s over land and agricultural policy Social protection and agriculture are The section also highlights resistance to closely intertwined, although this is these policies by civil society and their not always recognised (Tirivayi et al., search for alternatives to IFI market based 2016). According to national statistics, approaches. 67% of Mozambique’s population relies on agriculture as their main means of survival (INE, 2019). Land therefore plays a very important role in the livelihoods of large numbers of people, especially in rural areas, and if these people were not able to subsist on the land they would be in need of social protection. This section looks at the historical and current role of the World Bank, in influencing agricultural policy and, more recently, in supporting agricultural programmes that aim to link peasant production into global value chains. The Constitution of Mozambique defines agriculture as the basis for development and as one of the priority sectors of the economy. In line with approaches promoted by IFIs and private corporate interests Mozambique’s agricultural policies, since the early 1990s prioritised large-scale, intensive, market-oriented agriculture (Abbas et al., 2021). With the Covid-19 pandemic, these approaches have been strengthened (Monjane, 2021), as seen by the revision of the national land policy, which seeks to collaterize land, that is to move to private ownership of land and use land as guarantee against which to give loans; and the development of a World Bankfunded agribusiness-oriented agricultural programme called Sustenta. “While many of the World Bank’s efforts to marketize and commercialise agricultural production have failed, even on their own terms , these failed projects have used up valuable resources that could have benefited smallholder farmers.” 23 Fast-tracking Financialization - International Financial Institutions’ Responses to the Covid-19 Pandemic in Mozambique