Hujambo!
That is Swahili for hello. I hope you had a lovely Easter filled with lots of chocolate! Today I want to talk about an issue very prevalent in Africa at the moment: land grabs. I'll give a small intro on the subject, but feel free to click the link to get a Wikipedia briefing on this complex issue.
Land grabbing involves a company or wealthier nation, like Japan, leasing or purchasing land from developing countries, such as Sudan. The food that is produced on this land is then exported back to the country who bought the land. The land can also be used to produce biofuels, which has become quite popular as of recently. Countries that have become food-insecure are often the ones to purchase or lease this land.
Doesn't sound too terrible, right? The wealthy nation gets its food and the developing nation gets some money in exchange for land?
Well, I don't think that is quite the case. Although this issue is somewhat controversial, I do think there is some injustice going on.
Sadly, the land that is bought or leased isn't always unoccupied. People live on this land. Can you imagine that? I would be quite destroyed and horrified if I were forced to leave my home because some nation bought it from the government. Not only that, but food security for locals becomes an issue. The land that they previously lived on and grew food on is no longer available for their use. Often, the families that live on this land are completely unaware that their land is owned by the government and they may not have proper documentation. In 2009, a Libyan company "leased 386 square miles of land from Mali without consulting local communities that had long used it." The land that gets bought or leased can be inhabited by people who have had that plot of land for generations.
Land grabbing not only takes land and food sources away for the local community, but the jobs it creates are often short-lived and under-paid. Furthermore, many companies use their own labor force and not the local labor.
Doesn't sound too terrible, right? The wealthy nation gets its food and the developing nation gets some money in exchange for land?
Well, I don't think that is quite the case. Although this issue is somewhat controversial, I do think there is some injustice going on.
Sadly, the land that is bought or leased isn't always unoccupied. People live on this land. Can you imagine that? I would be quite destroyed and horrified if I were forced to leave my home because some nation bought it from the government. Not only that, but food security for locals becomes an issue. The land that they previously lived on and grew food on is no longer available for their use. Often, the families that live on this land are completely unaware that their land is owned by the government and they may not have proper documentation. In 2009, a Libyan company "leased 386 square miles of land from Mali without consulting local communities that had long used it." The land that gets bought or leased can be inhabited by people who have had that plot of land for generations.
Land grabbing not only takes land and food sources away for the local community, but the jobs it creates are often short-lived and under-paid. Furthermore, many companies use their own labor force and not the local labor.
Here's a nifty little info graphic I made with the help of Piktochart.com. Might not be the easiest to read, so click here to see a bigger picture of it.
It is understandable that a nation might lease or sell government-owned land to foreign investors to increase the wealth of their nation or provide more food for their people, but these large land purchases often have very negative effects. And in my opinion, the negative effects of this land grabbing outweigh the positive effects. Purchasing or leasing government land is not a terrible concept, but it must be done with care for the local community. The locals cannot be shoved under the rug and ignored. These land deals need to be carefully investigated as well. The nation or company purchasing the land should not simply assume that the land is unoccupied. But perhaps the best approach would be not to invest in large portions of land and build a new farm, but rather the local, pre-existing farms. This would give wealth to the community and take care of food-security issues.
-The Green Sasquatch
Sources:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/22/world/africa/22mali.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/06/opinion/the-global-farmland-rush.html
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-17099348
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Land_grabbing
http://www.grain.org
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