Although the pace at which agricultural lands worldwide have been bought up by foreign or transnational private investors has fallen since the peak levels of 2009, research by sustainable development organisation the Worldwatch Institute has revealed that the consolidation of agricultural land into a few private hands is continuing above 2005 levels, threatening food security for many of the Earth’s most vulnerable people.

An estimated 70.2 million hectares of agricultural land worldwide has been sold or leased to foreign private and public investors since 2000. In its Vital Signs Online service, the Worldwatch Institute documents these acquisitions, the bulk of which occurred between 2008 and 2010.

The greatest number of purchases have been in Africa, where 34.3 million hectares has been sold or leased since 2000. In total, 56.2 million hectares (four per cent of the continent’s agricultural land) has been bought in this way. East Africa accounts for the greatest investment, with 310 deals covering 16.8 million hectares reported in the region.

Asia and Latin America come in second and third for most heavily targeted regions, with 27.1 million and 6.6 million hectares of land deals, respectively. Of the investor countries, Brazil, India, and China are the most significant buyers, accounting for 16.5 million hectares, or around 24 percent of the total hectares sold or leased worldwide.

Other significant buyers include the United States and the United Kingdom, which together account for 6.4 million hectares of land deals. The oil-rich but arid Gulf states make up the final group of major land investors, with Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar responsible for 4.6 million hectares.

The United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organisation has repeatedly made calls for governments and development organisations internationally to recognise the ‘right to land’ and promote more equitable land rights. The FAO has warned that ‘land grabs’ “Cause great harm if local people are excluded from decisions about allocating land and if their land rights are not protected.”

Land grabs threaten food security

Cameron Scherer, an author for the Vital Signs service said, "In several cases----namely, South Africa, China, Brazil, and India----there is an overlap between investor and target countries. Yet most of the data paint one of two pictures: First, there is a new 'South-South' regionalism, in which emerging economies invest in nearby, culturally affiliated countries. The other trend is one of wealthy (or increasingly wealthy) countries, many with little arable land, buying up land in low-income nations----especially those that have been particularly vulnerable to the financial and food crises of recent years."

The food crisis of 2007-08 helped spark the dramatic uptick in foreign acquisitions in 2009, as investors rushed to capitalise on the rising prices of staple crops. However, according to the Worldwatch author, food prices are not solely responsible for the land-grab trend. He warned that, as fuel consumption and oil prices continue to rise, the demand for land on which to grow feedstocks for biofuels will likely rise too, increasing the pressure on limited cropland.

Foreign land acquisitions have, in many cases, displaced local farmers who formerly occupied and farmed the land, but who frequently lack formal land rights or access to legal institutions to defend these rights. As well as threatening the food security of these farmers and the communities that rely on their endeavours, land grabs may also have environmental implications.

Land bought or leased in this way often results in land use change to more industrial agricultural methods, which can have serious ecological and other impacts in these regions, many of which were formally farmed using lower-impact techniques. Worldwatch warns that “In the absence of clear regulations, robust enforcement mechanisms, government transparency, and channels for civil society participation, further investments in land may benefit a group of increasingly wealthy investorsat the expense of those living in the targeted land areas.”

Furthermore, much of the land (67 per cent) is bought up by private companies, which use it for a range of purposes, including mining, forestry and livestock production. These uses of agricultural land, which is needed most acutely to increase sustainable agricultural production in areas with a history of food insecurity, risks compounding the problems of poverty and unequal access to food.

The FAO has said agricultural production needs to increase by the middle of the century to feed a growing world population; these increases will, for the most part, have to be realised on existing agricultural land, much of which is in regions being affected by land grabs.

Insight into the trends of buying land comes from the Land Matrix Project, a global network consisting of 45 research and civil society organizations, which released the largest database to date on these types of land deals in April this year, having gathered data from 1,006 deals covering 70.2 million hectares around the world.

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