Chronic hunger is “one of the most serious challenges facing the global community”, the Irish President Michael D Higgins has said in his address at Feeding the World in 2050. He told delegates chronic hunger now affects one in seven people each day - a total of about 925 million. He described as “predatory” countries and corporations which were “taking over agricultural land in developing countries to secure their own food security or boost corporate speculative profits”. Higgins said such “land-grabs and drive for profits” were contributing to “evictions, poverty and conflict”.
Since 2000, investors or state bodies in rich or emerging countries have bought more than 83 million hectares of agricultural land in poorer developing countries. This amounts to 1.7 percent of the world's agricultural land.
Most of these purchases have been made in Africa, with two-thirds taking place in countries where hunger is widespread and institutions for establishing formal land ownership are often weak. The purchases in Africa alone amount to an area of agricultural land the size of Kenya. The Oakland Institute, a think tank in California, estimates that African land equal to the size of France has been leased or sold to foreign governments or investors since 2008 for commodity and biofuel exports.
Foreign investors claim the land has been left idle; thus, by bringing it into production, they are increasing the availability of food overall. A Land Matrix Partnership report found that this is not the case: Roughly 45 percent of the purchases involved existing croplands, and almost a third of the purchased land was forested, indicating that its development may pose risks for biodiversity. Most of the investments are aimed at producing food or other crops for export from the countries in which the land is acquired, for the obvious reason that richer countries can pay more for the output. More than 40 percent of such projects aim to export food to the source country.
The number of people who go hungry in Africa’s poorest countries is growing. 230 million people – or one-in-four Africans living south of the Sahara – are undernourished, up 38% from 20 years ago. Some 850 million of the world’s 7 billion people are classified as hungry, UN figures show. In the African sub-continent, 31% of people are considered malnourished, up from 29% at the start of the century. Oxfam cites access to land in the farm sector keep too many people in grinding poverty. Though Africa is rich in ecosystem diversity, only about 10% of the continent has naturally fertile soils for growing food crops but poor management practices threaten even those areas. More and more African land is being shifted from cultivation for local consumption to production for export crops. Investors from the Middle East, Asia and Europe are tapping Africa’s cheap land and labour to supplement their own commodity production. The EU alone imports 40% of sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural exports. Some African governments that banked on investors to create jobs and revenue have acknowledged that the land deals have hurt small farmers, by driving them off productive land or sapping their water supplies. Starting this month, Tanzania scaled back the amount of land foreign investors can lease.
Since 2000, investors or state bodies in rich or emerging countries have bought more than 83 million hectares of agricultural land in poorer developing countries. This amounts to 1.7 percent of the world's agricultural land.
Most of these purchases have been made in Africa, with two-thirds taking place in countries where hunger is widespread and institutions for establishing formal land ownership are often weak. The purchases in Africa alone amount to an area of agricultural land the size of Kenya. The Oakland Institute, a think tank in California, estimates that African land equal to the size of France has been leased or sold to foreign governments or investors since 2008 for commodity and biofuel exports.
Foreign investors claim the land has been left idle; thus, by bringing it into production, they are increasing the availability of food overall. A Land Matrix Partnership report found that this is not the case: Roughly 45 percent of the purchases involved existing croplands, and almost a third of the purchased land was forested, indicating that its development may pose risks for biodiversity. Most of the investments are aimed at producing food or other crops for export from the countries in which the land is acquired, for the obvious reason that richer countries can pay more for the output. More than 40 percent of such projects aim to export food to the source country.
The number of people who go hungry in Africa’s poorest countries is growing. 230 million people – or one-in-four Africans living south of the Sahara – are undernourished, up 38% from 20 years ago. Some 850 million of the world’s 7 billion people are classified as hungry, UN figures show. In the African sub-continent, 31% of people are considered malnourished, up from 29% at the start of the century. Oxfam cites access to land in the farm sector keep too many people in grinding poverty. Though Africa is rich in ecosystem diversity, only about 10% of the continent has naturally fertile soils for growing food crops but poor management practices threaten even those areas. More and more African land is being shifted from cultivation for local consumption to production for export crops. Investors from the Middle East, Asia and Europe are tapping Africa’s cheap land and labour to supplement their own commodity production. The EU alone imports 40% of sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural exports. Some African governments that banked on investors to create jobs and revenue have acknowledged that the land deals have hurt small farmers, by driving them off productive land or sapping their water supplies. Starting this month, Tanzania scaled back the amount of land foreign investors can lease.
1 comment:
The study shows that foreign land acquisition is a global phenomenon, involving 62 grabbed countries and 41 grabbers and affecting every continent except Antarctica. Africa and Asia account for 47 percent and 33 percent of the global grabbed area, respectively, and about 90 percent of the grabbed area is in 24 countries. Countries most affected by the highest rates of water grabbing are Indonesia, the Philippines and the Democratic Republic of Congo. The highest rates of irrigated water grabbing occur in Tanzania and Sudan. Countries most active in foreign land acquisition are located in the Middle East, Southeast Asia, Europe and North America. Overall, about 60 percent of the total grabbed water is appropriated, through land grabbing, by companies in the United States, United Arab Emirates, India, United Kingdom, Egypt, China and Israel.
"By losing control of part of their land and water, in many cases local people are giving up to wealthier nations their most precious natural resources – resources that could be used now or in the future to enhance their own food security,"
http://phys.org/news/2013-01-global-qualitative-water-grabbing-phenomenon.html
Post a Comment