Chapter 2: State and Trends
important for poverty alleviation and development because they improve efficiency by transferring land from less productive users with large landholdings to farmers who are more efficient but land-constrained (Otsuka 2007; Migot- Adholla et al. 1994). In Ghana, for example, tenants are provided with land on which to establish cocoa farms and are supposed to give one third of their yield to the landowners as rent (More...10).
Schoneveld (2014) estimates that 227 000 square kilometres of arable land in sub-Saharan Africa was recently acquired by large entities, with approximately 90 per cent of this involving a foreign primary shareholding. This is equivalent to approximately 9.7 per cent of the total area under cultivation in sub-Saharan Africa, and about 35 per cent of the region’s remaining potentially available cropland, if forestland is excluded (Chamberlin et al. 2014). Half of these investments are located in just six countries: Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mozambique, South
Sudan and
Zambia. Large-scale acquisitions by domestic investors are on the rise as well. Some cross-country investments in Africa have also been highlighted, for example Libya’s investments in Mali; Mauritius’s investments in Mozambique; and Egypt’s in Ethiopia (Zerfu and Birhanu 2012).
About 7 per cent of large-scale land investment is focused on basic food crops, 60 per cent on oilseeds, 15 per cent on timber and pulpwood trees, and 13 per cent on sugar crops (Schoneveld 2014). Large-scale land investment in the agribusiness industry can provide benefits through economies of scale, proper marketing and accountability. In the food industry it has the potential to lower the price of essential foods, improve productivity and efficiency and enable investment in innovation that ultimately benefits both large-scale investors and smallholder farmers (Deininger 2011). While some of the large-scale land acquisitions may result in improved investments in rural development, they can have significant impacts on local communities who may not have the bargaining power required to negotiate and get favourable terms. The unequal power relations in land acquisition deals can put the livelihoods of the poor and the
vulnerable at risk. This problem is exacerbated by the fact that some small-scale landholders may have no formal title to land even though they own the land under customary land tenure (Borras et al. 2011; Von Braun and Meinzen-Dick 2009).
Furthermore, large-scale land acquisition sometimes ignores the other forms of land use, often practised by the poor for purposes such as grazing animals and gathering fuelwood or medicinal plants, which tend to be undervalued in official assessments due to lack of markets for these products. For example, women depend more on land-based natural resources that directly affect the day-to-day welfare of households than men. Large land acquisitions may therefore negatively affect women’s income from land resources more than men’s, resulting in profound consequences for household well-being. It is therefore not uncommon to find that these land transactions lead to negative livelihood processes and outcomes for women. Policy interventions designed to address local and national challenges to socio- economic and cultural development should recognize the impacts of these transactions on women and put in place appropriate measures to mitigate their negative impacts (Yengoh et al. 2015). Overall, there is a need for strong collective institutions that give smallholder farmers enough agency and power to voice their concerns and negotiate favourable terms (Von Braun and Meinzen-Dick 2009).
2.2.5 Land degradation About 500 000 square kilometres of land in Africa is estimated to be degraded (UNEP 2013) due to soil erosion, salinization, pollution and desertification (Figure 2.2.7). Deforestation, forest fires, over-cultivation, inefficient irrigation practices, overgrazing, overexploitation of resources and uncontrolled mining activities, as well as climate change and variability are blamed for the degradation.
The impacts of land degradation include reduced agricultural productivity, with concomitant effects on food availability, nutrition and human health. This fuels social, economic and political tensions that can lead to migration, with associated
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