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