The worldwide spike in food prices nearly a decade ago set off a land-buying surge by wealthy investors and nations wanting to shore up their food supply by acquiring cropland in developing nations. The surge was decried by critics as land grabs that would displace small farmers and herders. “The emerging new trend we wrote about in 2008 has continued and become worse,” says the nonprofit Genetic Resources Action International (GRAIN), which counts 491 “land grab” deals totaling 30 million hectares in 78 countries, mostly in Africa and South America.
GRAIN tallied 100 initiatives in 2008, rising to 400 in a 2012 update. Some “mega” deals have collapsed, so the amount of land involved is smaller than the 35 million hectares listed in 2012. “This new research shows that, while some deals have fallen by the wayside, the global farmland grab is far from over. Rather, it is in many ways deepening, expanding to new frontiers and intensifying conflict around the world,” said GRAIN.
Some deals were modified into agreements to buy crops rather than land itself, said GRAIN, pointing to transactions involving Chinese companies in Argentina and Brazil. Nonetheless, there are new ventures aimed at large and long-term expansion of industrial agriculture.
“Much of the Asian-led oil palm expansion in Africa, and the advance of pension funds and trade conglomerates to secure access to new farmlands, fall into this category. Increasingly, gaining access to farmland is part of a broader corporate strategy to profit from carbon markets, mineral resources, water resources, seeds, soil and environmental services,” said GRAIN.
Along with the list of land deals, the nonprofit listed 126 projects that failed, a testament to the food frenzy that gripped the world. “Whether due to incompetence, hubris, inexperience or poor planning, their collapse helps to explain why the growth in farmland deals has slowed since 2012 and why the overall number of hectares has declined.”