With Farmlands Being Grabbed,
More Of Africa Await March Of The Millions
06 February, 2011 | By Devinder Sharma (New York Times)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground Reality
Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute of Environment &
Development. From the response that the blog attracted, it is quite
obvious that people are infuriated by the way land grab is taking
place.
In another related development, an official press release issued by
the Govt of India last week (Feb 1, 2011) said: "Ethiopia has
invited Indian farmers for commercial farming in view of high
skill and experience of Indian farmers in commercial crops.
Calling on Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food &
Public Distribution, Prof. K.V.Thomas here today, Ethiopian
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Tafera Derbew said that Indian
farmers can avail the opportunity of vast farming land set
aside by his country for commercial farming and grow pulses
and edible oil crops for export to India."
Don't forget, India is the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia with
approved investment of US $ 4.4 billion, out of which 40 per cent
investment is in the field of commercial agriculture. Already, more
than 80 Indian companies have bought land in Ethiopia.
Anyway, one of the letters commenting on Damian's blog post
quoting Friends of the Earth, listed some of the recent cases of farm
land grab in Africa. Before I go to the salient conclusions of the
IIED report, let us have a look at the extent of land grab that has
already taken place. What the list below provides is only the land
grabbed for energy plantations - jatropha and agro-fuels. Therefore
this is only a tip of the iceberg.
Ethiopia 700,000 ha earmarked for sugar cane, 23 million ha
suitable for jatropha. UK-based Sun Biofuels operates 5,000 ha,
Acazis AG (German) leases 56,000 ha with concessions for another
200,000 ha.
Kenya Japanese, Belgian and Canadian companies plan to up to
500,000 ha.
Tanzania 1,000 rice farmers forced off their land to make way for
sugarcane.
Mozambique Investors aim for 4.8 million ha. Over 183,000ha
currently allocated to jatropha. Companies: UK, Italy, Germany,
Portugal, Canada and Ukraine.
Swaziland UK based D1 Oils suspends expansion of jatropha
despite promotion by rockstar Bob Geldof.
Congo Chinese company requests 1 million ha. Italian energy
corporation ENI plans palm oil plantation of 70,000 ha.
Angola 500,000 ha of land designated for agrofuels. Angolian,
Brazilian, Spanish and South African companies.
Cameroon Cameroon/French company expanding palm oil
plantations including 60-year lease on 58,000 ha.
Sierra Leone Swiss based Addax Bioenergy obtains 26,000 ha
for sugarcane.
Ghana Italian-based Agroils obtains 105,000 ha, UK company
Jatropha
S Africa acquires 120,000 ha, ScanFuel (Norway) cultivates
10,000 hectares and has contracts for ca. 400,000 ha, Galten
(Israel) acquires 100,000 ha.
Benin Proposed 300,000 - 400,000 ha of wetlands to be
converted for oil palm.
Nigeria Land acquisitions by the state using foreign capital and
expertise. Over 100,000 ha grabbed.
Another letter from someone whose id is cbarr, said: "The land
grabs seem to be following a similar pattern to Peru where the
world business council for sustainable development lobbied for
a change in the rules on land ownership stating it would help
local communities develop to have a concrete model for land
ownership. It's led to indigenous groups having land seized
from under them and massive strife in agricultural areas
especially the highlands as mining companies and agricorp buy
up all the land. As a result there is now a sustained resistance
movement and growing social unrest in the nation."
So the malaise is not only confined to Africa, but is global.
Nevertheless, Damian writes in his blog: "He (Lorenzo Cotula)
examines 12 contracts which have become public in which
large areas of land have been leased, ranging from a timber
deal in Sudan to a rice and corn deal in Madagascar. These are
mere snapshot of the hundreds of deals that have been struck,
from the finance tycoon that reportedly concluded a deal for
400,000 hectares with a local warlord in Southern Sudan to an
agribusiness with established track record in tropical
agriculture that negotiated a sophisticated contract for both
production and processing in Mali.
The picture from the 12 contracts is not good. The leases are
long, up to 100 years, and the rents are low - a dollar per
hectare per year in one case. In another contract, the land is
allocated explicitly for free. In some cases investors get priority
access to water, the very stuff of life.
In theory at least, such land acquisition could be beneficial to
the host countries. They could bring investment and expertise,
improve irrigation and other infrastructure, and increase crop
yields and create jobs. But most of the contracts fail to specify
these benefits clearly or enforceably. There is little on the
safeguards for local food security - raising the prospect of food
being trucked out of a starving nation under armed guard - or
for the local environment."
I don't know why the Africa leaders are so blind that they can't see
the threat farmland grabs pose for their national sovereignty. Why
has political leadership across Africa, and this is true for Asia too,
has been so seduced by the magic of foreign direct investments
(FDI) that they can't read the warning ahead? Such myopic thinking
is certainly taking the world towards difficult times. History may not
pardon these political leaders, but by the time the turn comes to
penalise them they would be gone.
I also draw your attention to Lester Browns latest book World on
the Edge. He says (in a review published in The Guardian) that in
2009 Saudi Arabia received its first shipment of rice produced
on land it had acquired in Ethiopia while at the same time the
World Food Programme was feeding 5 million Ethiopians.
Similarly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China has
acquired 7 million hectares for palm oil production and yet
millions of people in the DRC are dependent on international
aid for food.
Brown warns that 'land grabbing is an integral part of the
global power struggle for food security'. He argues that
geopolitics for several centuries have been dominated by the
issue of access to markets, but increasingly in the future this
will be replaced by the overriding importance of access to
supplies. Food importing countries are anxiously securing their
food supplies, all too aware that exporting countries can
impose export bans to meet their needs. In 2007 both Russia
and Argentina, major grain exporters, put in place export bans
and it sent waves of panic around the world, which have
probably played a big part in fuelling land acquisition deals.
Much of the attention so far has focused on Africa. Most of the
biggest deals have been in countries such as Ethiopia, Mali and
Sudan. The imminently independent south Sudan has seen
investors queuing up to exploit one of the areas of greatest
potential for as yet under developed agricultural land. In
comparison with many other areas of the world, land in Africa
is very cheap; in Ethiopia, land can be leased for as little as $1
an acre." [you can read the full article at: http://bit.ly/ihSDrl]
No wonder, may Indian companies are keen to invest in Ethiopia.
Where in the world do you get land at $ 1 an acre? At this rate, I
am sure the African growth bubble will also burst sooner than later.
Just as one case of self-immolation in Tunis spread the fire across
the Arab world, the day is not far off when Africa too will be
engulfed with a raging political fire stoked by farm landgrabs.
. Courtesy
More Of Africa Await March Of The Millions
06 February, 2011 | By Devinder Sharma (New York Times)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ground Reality
- The other day I read an
interesting blog post by
Damian Carrington of The
Guardian. It tried to
examine the small print
behind the massive farm
land grab in Africa. His blog
was based on a report
Lorenzo Cotula of the International Institute of Environment &
Development. From the response that the blog attracted, it is quite
obvious that people are infuriated by the way land grab is taking
place.
In another related development, an official press release issued by
the Govt of India last week (Feb 1, 2011) said: "Ethiopia has
invited Indian farmers for commercial farming in view of high
skill and experience of Indian farmers in commercial crops.
Calling on Minister of State for Consumer Affairs, Food &
Public Distribution, Prof. K.V.Thomas here today, Ethiopian
Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Tafera Derbew said that Indian
farmers can avail the opportunity of vast farming land set
aside by his country for commercial farming and grow pulses
and edible oil crops for export to India."
Don't forget, India is the largest foreign investor in Ethiopia with
approved investment of US $ 4.4 billion, out of which 40 per cent
investment is in the field of commercial agriculture. Already, more
than 80 Indian companies have bought land in Ethiopia.
Anyway, one of the letters commenting on Damian's blog post
quoting Friends of the Earth, listed some of the recent cases of farm
land grab in Africa. Before I go to the salient conclusions of the
IIED report, let us have a look at the extent of land grab that has
already taken place. What the list below provides is only the land
grabbed for energy plantations - jatropha and agro-fuels. Therefore
this is only a tip of the iceberg.
Ethiopia 700,000 ha earmarked for sugar cane, 23 million ha
suitable for jatropha. UK-based Sun Biofuels operates 5,000 ha,
Acazis AG (German) leases 56,000 ha with concessions for another
200,000 ha.
Kenya Japanese, Belgian and Canadian companies plan to up to
500,000 ha.
Tanzania 1,000 rice farmers forced off their land to make way for
sugarcane.
Mozambique Investors aim for 4.8 million ha. Over 183,000ha
currently allocated to jatropha. Companies: UK, Italy, Germany,
Portugal, Canada and Ukraine.
Swaziland UK based D1 Oils suspends expansion of jatropha
despite promotion by rockstar Bob Geldof.
Congo Chinese company requests 1 million ha. Italian energy
corporation ENI plans palm oil plantation of 70,000 ha.
Angola 500,000 ha of land designated for agrofuels. Angolian,
Brazilian, Spanish and South African companies.
Cameroon Cameroon/French company expanding palm oil
plantations including 60-year lease on 58,000 ha.
Sierra Leone Swiss based Addax Bioenergy obtains 26,000 ha
for sugarcane.
Ghana Italian-based Agroils obtains 105,000 ha, UK company
Jatropha
S Africa acquires 120,000 ha, ScanFuel (Norway) cultivates
10,000 hectares and has contracts for ca. 400,000 ha, Galten
(Israel) acquires 100,000 ha.
Benin Proposed 300,000 - 400,000 ha of wetlands to be
converted for oil palm.
Nigeria Land acquisitions by the state using foreign capital and
expertise. Over 100,000 ha grabbed.
Another letter from someone whose id is cbarr, said: "The land
grabs seem to be following a similar pattern to Peru where the
world business council for sustainable development lobbied for
a change in the rules on land ownership stating it would help
local communities develop to have a concrete model for land
ownership. It's led to indigenous groups having land seized
from under them and massive strife in agricultural areas
especially the highlands as mining companies and agricorp buy
up all the land. As a result there is now a sustained resistance
movement and growing social unrest in the nation."
So the malaise is not only confined to Africa, but is global.
Nevertheless, Damian writes in his blog: "He (Lorenzo Cotula)
examines 12 contracts which have become public in which
large areas of land have been leased, ranging from a timber
deal in Sudan to a rice and corn deal in Madagascar. These are
mere snapshot of the hundreds of deals that have been struck,
from the finance tycoon that reportedly concluded a deal for
400,000 hectares with a local warlord in Southern Sudan to an
agribusiness with established track record in tropical
agriculture that negotiated a sophisticated contract for both
production and processing in Mali.
The picture from the 12 contracts is not good. The leases are
long, up to 100 years, and the rents are low - a dollar per
hectare per year in one case. In another contract, the land is
allocated explicitly for free. In some cases investors get priority
access to water, the very stuff of life.
In theory at least, such land acquisition could be beneficial to
the host countries. They could bring investment and expertise,
improve irrigation and other infrastructure, and increase crop
yields and create jobs. But most of the contracts fail to specify
these benefits clearly or enforceably. There is little on the
safeguards for local food security - raising the prospect of food
being trucked out of a starving nation under armed guard - or
for the local environment."
I don't know why the Africa leaders are so blind that they can't see
the threat farmland grabs pose for their national sovereignty. Why
has political leadership across Africa, and this is true for Asia too,
has been so seduced by the magic of foreign direct investments
(FDI) that they can't read the warning ahead? Such myopic thinking
is certainly taking the world towards difficult times. History may not
pardon these political leaders, but by the time the turn comes to
penalise them they would be gone.
I also draw your attention to Lester Browns latest book World on
the Edge. He says (in a review published in The Guardian) that in
2009 Saudi Arabia received its first shipment of rice produced
on land it had acquired in Ethiopia while at the same time the
World Food Programme was feeding 5 million Ethiopians.
Similarly in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, China has
acquired 7 million hectares for palm oil production and yet
millions of people in the DRC are dependent on international
aid for food.
Brown warns that 'land grabbing is an integral part of the
global power struggle for food security'. He argues that
geopolitics for several centuries have been dominated by the
issue of access to markets, but increasingly in the future this
will be replaced by the overriding importance of access to
supplies. Food importing countries are anxiously securing their
food supplies, all too aware that exporting countries can
impose export bans to meet their needs. In 2007 both Russia
and Argentina, major grain exporters, put in place export bans
and it sent waves of panic around the world, which have
probably played a big part in fuelling land acquisition deals.
Much of the attention so far has focused on Africa. Most of the
biggest deals have been in countries such as Ethiopia, Mali and
Sudan. The imminently independent south Sudan has seen
investors queuing up to exploit one of the areas of greatest
potential for as yet under developed agricultural land. In
comparison with many other areas of the world, land in Africa
is very cheap; in Ethiopia, land can be leased for as little as $1
an acre." [you can read the full article at: http://bit.ly/ihSDrl]
No wonder, may Indian companies are keen to invest in Ethiopia.
Where in the world do you get land at $ 1 an acre? At this rate, I
am sure the African growth bubble will also burst sooner than later.
Just as one case of self-immolation in Tunis spread the fire across
the Arab world, the day is not far off when Africa too will be
engulfed with a raging political fire stoked by farm landgrabs.
. Courtesy
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