Land Grab or "Development Opportunity?"

Small scale farmers in Africa (Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17099348)

A "land grab," according to a general definition, is an aggressive taking of land in order to expand territorial holdings and broaden power.  Land grabs are common today in Africa, Latin America, Central Asia, and Southeast Asia.  Global food prices are very much tied to the price of petroleum, because petroleum and fossil fuels are necessary for industrial mechanized agriculture and farm machinery.  Land grabs are becoming a more common occurrence as companies attempt to acquire more land due to the world prices for food and commodities; companies are buying the land in attempts to safeguard for the seemingly inevitable downfall of the global food systems, and governments are purchasing land in the attempt to create a safety supply of food and biofuel products.  

This dependency on resources is a result of the globalization and trade.  Globalization greatly impacts diets of people around the world because consumption is no longer limited to regional growing and agricultural restrictions.  Crops typically not available in certain areas are now accessible because of trade; this is also true for mined products that can only be mined or accessed in certain areas of the world.  Global free trade creates market competition and thus drives prices lower.


Land grabs relate to development in that they emerge as corporations and ruling bodies expand their territories to solidify power and resource control.  Land and resources are becoming vital assets for governments and corporations because of the stresses on the global food crisis and need for resources.  Land grabs or "land acquisitions" are primarily driven by the desire to develop agribusiness.  Investment in foreign land is encouraged as a development strategy by investors and governments, who argue that "land acquisitions" create jobs, food security, and infrastructure for local communities, as well as meeting the demands for and providing access to food around the world.  When framed like this, it sounds pretty good, right? Helping local communities and providing food for all?  

This depicts the rainfall erosion hazard classes in southern Africa  (source at bottom of page)

We can examine this issue from another frame, that land grabs are exemplary of "neo-colonialism", because countries dependent on imported resources purchase land in poorer, resource-rich nations.  Land grabs are a form of structural violence in that the investors and governments are exhibiting and reinforcing control over the local peoples.  Land grabs take land away from local peoples and pastoral farmers, and because most of the crops produced go to biofuels, poverty and hunger increase.  There are no mechanisms for accountability in the areas of the land grabs, so the investors and institutions "acquiring" the land are able avoid any repercussions and consequences of their actions, environmental and social.  There is a huge loss in small scale farmers, and thus a large environmental shift from sustainable, small scale farming to corporate, industrial, destructive mono-cropping.  

Pastoral farmers in Nigeria (Source: http://vanessacurney.com/tag/niger/)

The loss of small farms and sustainable farming practices  is destructive to the community and local knowledge held there, and to the livelihoods of those people.  The loss of small scale farms also has a huge environmental impact, especially if it is take over by large agribusinesses, as the processes by which the large scale crops are farmed destroys biodiversity, increases pesticides, and cannot sustain itself year-to-year without the help of fertilizers and intensive care.  

La Via Campesina (Source: http://ecosocialismcanada.blogspot.com/2012/02/la-via-campesina-call-to-action.html)

But the people are fighting back.  Organizations such as La Via Campesina are fighting for the rights of small scale farmers and food sovereignty and the human right to food, water, and land on which they can produce food.  To learn more information about how people are fighting for their innate human rights and fighting land grabs, check out this website....http://farmlandgrab.org/.


To read more about land grabs and case studies, read these articles: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-africa-17099348 or http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/land-grabbing-the-end-of-sustainable-agriculture.html or http://www.stwr.org/food-security-agriculture/land-grabbing-the-end-of-sustainable-agriculture.html#sue-branford

The source for the map of Africa is available here, and is also a very interesting case study on the soil fertility and crop production in sub-Saharan Africa. http://www.fao.org/wairdocs/ilri/x5488e/x5488e0p.htm