From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Wed Dec 23 2009 - 08:21:36 EST
http://www.mediaglobal.org/article/2009-12-17/land-grabbing-creates-tensions-as-countries-combat-local-and-global-food-insecurity
"Land
grabbing" creates tensions as countries combat local and global food
insecurity
*By Allyn Gaestel*
*17 December 2009 [MEDIAGLOBAL]:* Once able to sustain its population of 30
million with local agriculture, Saudi Arabia now anticipates importing all
of its wheat by 2016, according to Reuters. Saudi Arabia’s aquifers are
drying up as a result of climate change, which has led to a massive decline
in local wheat harvests.
In order to guarantee food security for the population, Saudi Arabia’s
government has turned to land acquisition, commonly referred to as “land
grabbing” in East Africa. The King Abdullah Initiative for Saudi
Agricultural Investment Abroad is a government program that provides
financing and credit for companies to invest in international agriculture
for Saudi Arabia.
To be considered for Saudi investment, countries must be politically stable,
have useful natural resources for agriculture, tax relaxation on
agricultural exports, anti-corruption laws, and low-cost labor.
Contracts must be long-term, and Saudi Arabia must have the decision-making
power on what crops are produced.
The Initiative investigated potential partner countries and found Ethiopia
to be a viable candidate. The first Ethiopian harvest arrived in Saudi
Arabia this year.
The relationship between investors and host countries can be problematic
depending on the food situation in the host countries. Ethiopia, for
example, has faced long-term food insecurity. Currently 6.2 million
Ethiopians are threatened by malnutrition and hunger, according to the World
Food Programme.
Olivier De Schutter, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the right to food,
spoke earlier this year on the emerging land acquisition trend. “Investment
contracts should prioritize the development needs of the local population,”
he said. De Schutter sees a potential for a mutually beneficial relationship
between investing nations and their host countries only if a set of
principles guiding such relationships is put in place.
“Arrangements under which the foreign investor provides access to credit and
to improved technologies for contract farming, or obtains the possibility to
buy at predefined prices a portion of the crops, produced may be preferable
to long-term leases of land or land purchases.” Currently there is little
international monitoring of programs like the King Abdullah Initiative for
Saudi Agricultural Investment Abroad.
De Schutter further explained the complexity of the situation and the likely
possibility of exploitation to *MediaGlobal*. “The countries targeted by
such large-scale land investment are caught in a scissor. It requires very
fine tuning and good management to reap benefits for the local population in
general,” he said.
The most likely outcome of such agreements will be a loss of essential
farmland without benefit to the local population. Even if the investors
agree to put a portion of their harvest to market in their host
countries—hypothetically contributing to food security for host
counties—such contributions could disrupt local markets and undermine local
farmers’ businesses by flooding the market with cheaper goods produced by
agribusiness instead of small-scale farms.
Yet De Schutter recognizes the advantages the program provides to Saudi
Arabia. “Such large-scale land acquisitions are certainly a way to shield
Saudi Arabia from the risks associated for net food importing countries with
increasingly volatile and unreliable international markets for agricultural
commodities,” he told *MediaGlobal*.
Devlin Kuyek is a researcher for GRAIN, an international agricultural
advocacy group. GRAIN finds the entire concept of large-scale international
agribusiness to be problematic.
Instead GRAIN emphasizes the environmental and social benefits of
small-scale farming. Kuyek told *MediaGlobal*, “Countries that need to
import food can buy from farmers in other countries at fair prices and do
not need to deal with multinational agribusiness or engage in foreign
farmland grabs. Farmer’s organizations in Africa have been demanding fair
and better access to markets for decades.”
Global food security presents complex problems for countries aiming to
shield their populations from hunger. Saudi Arabia’s investment abroad is
its answer to diminishing local crop yield. But Ethiopia’s domestic need for
sufficient food supplies makes for a delicate balance between cooperation
and exploitation.
*MEDIAGLOBAL* is the global news agency, based in the United Nations
Secretariat, creating awareness in the media for the countries of the global
South, with a strong focus on South-South Cooperation. The media company is
one of the leading providers of information on global development issues
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