Land grabbing: the new global power play
46 Comments <
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/3955006.html#comments>
Alana Mann <
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/alana-mann-29832.html>
17 April 2012
.......In Ethiopia, 150,000 people have been relocated from eastern Somali
to make way for Saudi and Indian investment projects.....
A visit to the local farmers' market has become a weekly event for many
Australians. Meeting a real live farmer, coffee in hand, is part of the
experience. Do it while you can.
Small-scale producers are a dying breed around the world as the security of
rural communities is undermined by 'land-grabbing' - large-scale land
acquisition by foreign investors.
Today the international farmers' movement La Via Campesina calls on
governments to stop the global-land grab that deprives rural communities of
their livelihoods and threatens to spark civil war in countries already
crippled by poverty and hunger.
Prompted by the 2008 food crisis, wealthy food-importing nations such as
China, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and South Korea are securing their future food
supplies in poorer, resource-rich nations.
The World Bank reports that foreign investors acquired 111 million acres of
farmland in 2009. Nearly 75 per cent of this land is in sub-Saharan Africa.
Controversial land acquisitions have contributed to conflicts in Sudan,
Liberia and Sierra Leone.
Chinese multinationals Sino-Cam and Chongqing Seed Corp have leased land
from the governments of Cameroon and Tanzania for future rice production.
Bahrain has secured agro-fishery reserves in the Philippines. Indian
interests are buying palm oil plantations in Indonesia.
The backlash is fierce. China's attempt to secure 2.5 million acres of land
in the Philippines was thwarted by a public outcry, and Madagascans sacked
their government over the proposed sale of 3 million acres to Daewoo
Logistics of South Korea in 2009.
However land deals are often made without consultation with local people. In
Ethiopia, 150,000 people have been relocated from eastern Somali to make way
for Saudi and Indian investment projects. The impacts of these ventures,
including displacement, food insecurity and water shortages, are rarely
considered.
A 2010 survey of private investment in agriculture in the Sudan, Pakistan,
Tanzania and Mali by the New York Center for Human Rights and Global Justice
identified an absence of transparency and regulatory frameworks within the
host countries.
Supporters of the investment initiatives describe opportunities for
technological development and increased yields that will feed local
populations. They describe the leased land as 'undeveloped' - a highly
contested notion in regions where peasant farmers have no formal tenure.
What governments consider empty or marginal land is often all that local
people have to sustain their livelihoods.
In reality local people are unlikely to benefit from food production on land
leased to foreign investors. World Bank analysis suggests only 37 per cent
of foreign investment projects will be for food crops.
The food that is not exported to the home countries of investors will be
converted to bioethanol produced from soya, palm, rapeseed and other
oil-rich plants - the staple food of some of the poorest people in the
world.
In 2009 an estimated 100 million tons of grain were diverted for lucrative
biofuel production. This volume will escalate as developing countries set
ambitious targets to replace fossil fuels.
In March the UN Committee on World Food Security adopted draft guidelines
against land grabbing to better protect rural communities. Though
non-binding, these guidelines are the latest step in the long campaign to
reassert the importance of local agriculture.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation says "local production by small-scale
farmers" is the most efficient way to ensure food security at the household
level in developing countries as it increases food availability, income and
employment.
La Via Campesina, a social movement of 150 rural organisations across 70
countries, calls this food sovereignty.
Food sovereignty grants nations control over their food security policies,
including the right to impose tariffs against the dumping of cheap exports,
and the support of local markets.
It also puts the onus on governments to respect, protect and fulfil the
rights of citizens to food and the productive resources to produce it,
including land.
April 17 is the anniversary of the 1996 massacre of 19 members of the
Landless Workers' Movement in Brazil. Two per cent of Brazilian landowners
own 56 per cent of available land. On large estates, the latifundos, nearly
100 million hectares of fertile agricultural land lie fallow while 22
million go hungry.
For Brazilian farmers land-grabbing is just their latest challenge.
Alana Mann is a lecturer in the Media and Communications Department at the
University of Sydney. View her full profile here
<
http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/alana-mann-29832.html> .
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Received on Tue Apr 17 2012 - 10:28:42 EDT
