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The Social Costs of Overseas Land Acquisitions
Implications for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation
“Land Grab: the Race for the World’s Farmland” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Washington, D.C. May 5, 2009
Presented by Alexandra SpieldochDirector, Trade and Global Governance
Program
Our current food insecurity
• 963 million people • Major setback to
hunger eradication • MDG commitments: ½
by 2000• Investment in
agriculture is urgently needed
Investment in land acquisition
• Interest from governments and firms in long-term leases or ownership of land abroad
• Such deals not all established: many in negotiation or conflict
• Nevertheless, interest in overseas land acquisition efforts is growing
Increase in land acquisition efforts catching multilateral attention
• IFPRI has just released a new report• FAO-commissioned pieces• World Bank to publish codes of
conduct• UN Special Rapporteur on the Right
to Food – mission to Madascar
What factors to be considered?• Clear need for investment• For whom and for what?• Overseas land
acquisitions raise questions relating to ownership, access and control
• What implications for land and people?
Types of historical overseas land acquisition
• Colonization• Tourism• Contract farming• Natural resource
extraction
Current investments• Outsourcing for food, feed and fuel• Investments tend to flow from richer to
poorer• Not necessarily “North-South”
Current investments: examples
• China seeking offshore biofuels and food production in Africa
• South Korean food production in Mongolia and Russia
• Gulf Corporation Council outsourcing food production to Sudan and Pakistan
• Kenya to supply produce to Qatar
Current investments: Two main “push” factors for investors
What do host countries hope to gain?
• Infrastructure investment
• Access to research and technology
• Credit for markets• Ideally, local food
system support
Risks
• Lopsided power relationships between investors and host countries
• Host government conflict: within itself, and with its own people
More risks…
• High quality land could be diverted from communities – assumptions about marginal and unused land could misrepresent the needs of communities
Some more risks….
• Some targeted countries receive food aid, not in a position to refuse investment
• Land tenure reform easily undermined by market-led approaches
Political Conflict
• Land ownership disputes have long and violent history
• Recent disputes have chilled deals from going through– Daewoo &
Madagascar
Investment measures
• Incentives offered by host governments– Amending national land laws– Tax incentives– Few or no performance
requirements– Relaxed regulatory oversight
Community-level concerns
• Smallholder producers among most vulnerable
• ‘ Policy takers rather than policy makers’
Gender discrimination
• Women seldom possess legal land rights
• Women typically lack collateral to secure credit
• Paid work often temporary, low-paid, and insecure
Land Degradation
• Land degradation affects more than 900 million people worldwide and as much as two-thirds of the world’s agricultural land.
• As much as 1.8 billion people could be living in countries or regions with absolute water scarcity by 2025.
Moving Forward
1. Articulate a national vision for agriculture that leaves space for local priorities and smallholder needs
What kind of investment do Smallholders Need?
• Credit• Technology that promotes sustainable
agriculture for long-term food security• Access to land• Bargaining power• A fair price for their production• Access to markets
Moving Forward2. Review land use and availability ,
specific nature of land and promote land rights
Moving Forward
3. Food Security First
• Governments should enact measures to prioritize food security at the domestic level as the top priority
Moving Forward
4. Adopt a rights-based approach to guide investment
– Restrict governments and corporations from impinging on right to food
– Free, prior, informed consent and full disclosure
Moving Forward
4. Ensure broadly-based engagement in the various guidelines and best practice codes
Acknowledgements & Questions
• Special thanks to the Woodrow Wilson Center
• Thank you to the speakers and the participants
• Q & A