Food fears feed global scramble for land

By Katie Nguyen, AlertNet; Additional reporting by Laurie Goering in London and Katy Migiro in Nairobi
2 May 2012 LONDON (AlertNet) – It was designed to increase production and exports of vegetable oil, a commodity in short supply after World War Two, and foster growth in post-war Britain and Tanganyika. Instead, Britain’s scheme to carve out million-acre plantations for growing groundnuts in what is now Tanzania ended in disaster – scuppered by the thick bush that rendered machines to clear land for cultivation useless, and a lack of suitable soil and rainfall for the crop to grow. Sixty years on, similarly controversial projects are back in fashion in Africa and other parts of the developing world as investors – from foreign governments to wealthy individuals – hunt for land to grow food. Champions of the deals say they are good for agriculture and ultimately global food security. They say they provide a welcome injection of cash, new seeds, technology and knowledge into a sector that is often the neglected pillar of poor countries’ economies. But critics describe them as secretive “land grabs” snatched at knockdown prices, which threaten to push smallholder farmers off their land and deprive countries struggling with chronic hunger of fertile, arable land they need for themselves. “There’s a huge variety to these (deals). It’s not all bad,” Rajiv Shah, head of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), told AlertNet. “I suspect people use the term ‘land grab’ to characterise the ones that are thought of as not contributing to the local agricultural economy in a direct and specific way. But if done in the right way with enough transparency and with enough local engagement, it can be the engine of agricultural change and transformation that will help move lots of people out of poverty.” Fears about the planet’s ability to feed a projected 9 billion people by 2050 have driven much of the recent demand for land. But it’s a target the world can meet without a frenzied spending spree, as long as there’s greater investment in local farmers, many experts say. According to the Land Matrix project monitoring large-scale land transactions, land deals being considered or negotiated between 2000 and 2010 amounted to 203 million hectares – about eight times the size of Britain. Out of 71 million hectares in deals that Land Matrix was able to get good information on, 22 percent was for mining, tourism, industry, and forestry. Of the remaining 78 percent for agricultural production, three-quarters was for biofuels. Separate World Bank figures show that worldwide, 56 million hectares of farmland were leased or sold in 2008-2009 alone, with more than 70 percent of the demand for land in Africa. […]