This article combines both land tenure and food security issues within a dynamic framework that recognizes not just the conventional link between access to land and access to food in the short run, but also the recursive link between the access to food and the ability to maintain sufficient resources to meet long-run needs.
A landscape simulation was designed and tested in Viengkham, a mountainous district in the north of Lao PDR. This social learning process was introduced by researchers affiliated with national research institutions to improve land use planning practices and increase the ownership of local people in the planning process. Twelve members of the village land management committees participated in the role play called PLUP Fiction, which is part of a stepwise process of participatory land use planning (PLUP).
This article reviews recent research on contemporary transformations of global land governance. It shows how changes in global governance have facilitated and responded to radical revalorizations of land, together driving the intensified competition and struggles over land observed in many other contributions to this special issue. The rules in place to govern land use are shifting from ‘territorial’ toward ‘flow-centered’ arrangements, the latter referring to governance that targets particular flows of resources or goods, such as certification of agricultural or wood products.
In 2003, the Maputo Declaration of the African Union stated that, within five years, 10 per cent of budgets of member states would be dedicated to agriculture. Ten years on, despite spending increases by some countries African governments still allocate an average of only 4 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture. Only eight out of 54 countries under the African Union have consistently reached the 10 per cent target.
Food First Backgrounder, Spring 2014, Vol. 20, No. 1
Introduction: Land, Race and the Agrarian Crisis
The disastrous effects of widespread land grabbing and land concentration sweeping the globe do not affect all farmers equally. The degree of vulnerability to these threats is highest for smallholders, women and people of color—the ones who grow, harvest, process and prepare most of the world’s food.
At the turn of the 21st century, farmland was still considered an investment backwater by most of the financial sector. Although some insurance companies have had farmland holdings for years, most financial investors found farmland, and agricultural investment in general, unappealing compared to the much higher returns to be made in financial markets.
Introduction: Farmland, A Safe Investment in Troubling Financial Times
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28 May 2014
GRAIN | La Vía Campesina
For immediate release
Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The term “food security” is used to describe food availability, access, and use at many levels, including the global, national, local, household, and intra household levels.
The 2013 Global Hunger Index (GHI), which reflects data from the period 2008-2012, shows that global hunger has improved since 1990, falling by one-third. Despite the progress made, the level of hunger in the world remains “serious,” with 870 million people going hungry, according to estimates by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.Across regions and countries, GHI scores vary considerably. South Asia and Africa south of the Sahara are home to the highest GHI scores.
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