Companies in the business of selling farmland to billionaires and pension funds are peddling it as a green;sustainable and socially responsible investment. This propaganda is working. The digital land records and massive quantities of data that big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are vacuuming up from farmersfields make it easier for the companies to scour the planet for profitable farmland deals. They can also use satellite technologies and drones to monitor their farms from a distance. But the world’s farmland is finite.
Search results
Showing items 1 through 9 of 11.-
Library ResourceSeptember, 2021
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchApril, 2011Africa, Ethiopia
Examines political and social dynamics of foreign agricultural investment in Ethiopia. Concludes that this expansion is part of a government move towards an export-led development strategy, so the micro-benefits come at the cost of increased risks to those living in the vicinity of new investments, particularly politically marginalised pastoralist populations.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchApril, 2012Mozambique, Africa
Examines cases of confrontation over land in Northern Zambezia, Mozambique. One large company withdrew rather than fight local peasants and take over land being used to grow food. But two other investors chose to push ahead, and have come into conflict with local peasant communities.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchDecember, 2003Africa
Argues that the price of commercial farmland in Namibia is high in relation to the profits that can be made from commercial livestock farming. As a result, farming is rapidly becoming the preserve of the urban rich who farm as a lifestyle choice and are prepared to subsidise their farms from their principal sources of income. Government policy is trying to encourage black Namibians into commercial farming through the Affirmative Action Loans scheme. However, given the price of land, many of these farmers will struggle to create commercially viable farms.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJune, 2012Africa
A review of Fred Pearce’s book
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJanuary, 2002Zimbabwe, Africa
A review of Zimbabwe in 2001, focusing on the land question and farm workers. Reflections on conferences on Zimbabwe in Copenhagen and on farm workers in Southern Africa in Harare, with a section highlighting the key issues brought out in a new book on farm workers in Zimbabwe. Argues that issues around farm workers need to be seriously rethought and debated across the political spectrum and that land is a part of a much wider crisis of governance.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJuly, 2017Africa
Reports from meeting near Bilbao from peasants in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Almost everywhere in Africa the elite and corporations are undertaking efforts to capture and control people’s basic means of production, such as land, mineral resources, seeds and water. These resources are increasingly being privatized due to the myriad of investment agreements and policies driven by new institutional approaches, imposed on the continent by western powers and Bretton Woods institutions.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJuly, 2010Africa
Large-scale land acquisitions can have lasting repercussions for the future of agriculture, including both agribusiness and family farming. Rather than rushing into land deals, governments and investors should properly consider the wider range of options to invest in agriculture. In many parts of the world, family farmers have proved efficient and dynamic. Working with them can generate healthy returns, avoid the risks associated with land acquisitions, and improve farmers’ livelihoods.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchJanuary, 1999Africa
Looks at criteria for assessing the bills, problems of definition, alienation of land, titling and management of village land, dispute settlement, and validation of villagisation.
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Library ResourceReports & ResearchMay, 2014Africa
Includes the figures and what they tell us: the vast majority of farms in the world today are small and getter smaller; small farms are being squeezed onto less than a quarter of global agricultural land; we’re fast losing farms and farmers in many places, while big farms are getting bigger; despite their scarce and dwindling resources, small farmers continue to be the world’s major food producers; small farms not only produce most of the food, they are also the most productive; most small farmers are women, but their contributions are ignored and marginalised.
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