Smallholder Farmers' Food Security: Consequences of Global Land Grabs

Smallholder Farmers' Food Security: Consequences of Global Land Grabs PDF Author: Simon Manda
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9783659327728
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 100

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Book Description
The surging interest in foreign acquisition of land for agriculture by numerous actors in LDCs has triggered new fears of land grabbing for food and non-food commodities. Palm-oil boom has characterised SEA's land grabs and growth of smallholder participation in this sector. While protagonists argue that transformation of low productivity smallholders into commercial agriculture can change their livelihoods, detractors fear this can deflate localised food systems. This inquiry analyses the processes of inclusion and exclusion of smallholders in this oil-palm sector in Indonesia. It investigates how intensified large-scale agricultural investments in this sector constructs food security and insecurity spheres for smallholder farmers. Using different interacting tools for land control [regulation, market power, force, legitimation] this book exposes the struggles small-scale farmers locked in this internationally induced mode of production experience. This book should be useful to scholars, professionals, policy makers and students interested in research regarding dynamics of large-scale agricultural investment, land access, control as a dimension of commodification and food-security

Smallholder Farmers' Food Security: Consequences of Global Land Grabs

Smallholder Farmers' Food Security: Consequences of Global Land Grabs PDF Author: Simon Manda
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9783659327728
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 100

Get Book Here

Book Description
The surging interest in foreign acquisition of land for agriculture by numerous actors in LDCs has triggered new fears of land grabbing for food and non-food commodities. Palm-oil boom has characterised SEA's land grabs and growth of smallholder participation in this sector. While protagonists argue that transformation of low productivity smallholders into commercial agriculture can change their livelihoods, detractors fear this can deflate localised food systems. This inquiry analyses the processes of inclusion and exclusion of smallholders in this oil-palm sector in Indonesia. It investigates how intensified large-scale agricultural investments in this sector constructs food security and insecurity spheres for smallholder farmers. Using different interacting tools for land control [regulation, market power, force, legitimation] this book exposes the struggles small-scale farmers locked in this internationally induced mode of production experience. This book should be useful to scholars, professionals, policy makers and students interested in research regarding dynamics of large-scale agricultural investment, land access, control as a dimension of commodification and food-security

Global Land Grabs

Global Land Grabs PDF Author: Marc Edelman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317569504
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 354

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Book Description
Since the 2008 world food crisis a surge of land grabbing swept Africa, Asia and Latin America and even some regions of Europe and North America. Investors have uprooted rural communities for massive agricultural, biofuels, mining, industrial and urbanisation projects. ‘Water grabbing’ and ‘green grabbing’ have further exacerbated social tensions. Early analyses of land grabbing focused on foreign actors, the biofuels boom and Africa, and pointed to catastrophic consequences for the rural poor. Subsequently scholars carried out local case studies in diverse world regions. The contributors to this volume advance the discussion to a new stage, critically scrutinizing alarmist claims of the first wave of research, probing the historical antecedents of today’s land grabbing, examining large-scale land acquisitions in light of international human rights and investment law, and considering anew longstanding questions in agrarian political economy about forms of dispossession and accumulation and grassroots resistance. Readers of this collection will learn about the impacts of land and water grabbing; the relevance of key theorists, including Marx, Polanyi and Harvey; the realities of China’s involvement in Africa; how contemporary land grabbing differs from earlier plantation agriculture; and how social movements—and rural people in general—are responding to this new threat. This book was published as a special issue of Third World Quarterly.

The Global Farms Race

The Global Farms Race PDF Author: Michael Kugelman
Publisher: Island Press
ISBN: 9781610911870
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
As we struggle to feed a global population speeding toward 9 billion, we have entered a new phase of the food crisis. Wealthy countries that import much of their food, along with private investors, are racing to buy or lease huge swaths of farmland abroad. The Global Farms Race is the first book to examine this burgeoning trend in all its complexity, considering the implications for investors, host countries, and the world as a whole. The debate over large-scale land acquisition is typically polarized, with critics lambasting it as a form of “neocolonialism,” and proponents lauding it as an elixir for the poor yields, inefficient technology, and unemployment plaguing global agriculture. The Global Farms Race instead offers diverse perspectives, featuring contributions from agricultural investment consultants, farmers’ organizations, international NGOs, and academics. The book addresses historical context, environmental impacts, and social effects, and covers all the major geographic areas of investment. Nearly 230 million hectares of farmland—an area equivalent to the size of Western Europe—have been sold or leased since 2001, with most of these transactions occurring since 2008. As the deals continue to increase, it is imperative for anyone concerned with food security to understand them and their consequences. The Global Farms Race is a critical resource to develop that understanding.

The Great Food Robbery

The Great Food Robbery PDF Author: Genetic Resources Action International
Publisher: Fahamu/Pambazuka
ISBN: 085749113X
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 166

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Book Description
Arguing that corporations are mainly responsible for the expansion of the damaging industrial food system, this discussion focuses on these organizations and the ways they organize and control food production and distribution. Demonstrating how the corporate food system destroys those systems based on local markets, local cultures, and biodiversity, this account highlights howit puts the profits of the few before the needs of people and leads to massive food safety incidents, environmental destruction, labor exploitation, and the decimation of rural communities. Informative and direct, this book aims to inspire individuals to actively take the food system back from corporations and put it in the hands of people."

Sustainable Agricultural Development

Sustainable Agricultural Development PDF Author: Mohamed Behnassi
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9400705190
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 297

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Book Description
Due to many challenges (i.e. climate change, energy, water and land shortage, high demands on food, land grabbing, etc.), agriculture production potential is expected to be seriously affected; thus, increasing food insecurity and hunger in many already affected regions (especially in Africa). In this context, sustainable agriculture is highly recommended as an eco-system approach where soil, water, plants, environment and living organisms live in harmony. Innovative technologies and research should be developed to ensure sustainable agriculture and productivity using modern irrigation systems, improved varieties, improved soil quality, etc. In the meantime, the preservation of natural environment should be based on resource conservation technologies and best management practices. Sustainable Agricultural Development, not only raises the serious ethical and social issues underlying these huge environmental problems, but also aims at presenting successful experiences from all over the world in relation with sustainable farming, sustainable management of water and land resources, and innovative processes in livestock production. It also aims at providing inputs to decision making processes and encouraging the transfer of relevant know-how, technologies and expertise to different countries where similar agro-climatic conditions may exist; thus saving precious resources and promoting sustainable agricultural development as a relevant approach to tackle the food security challenge. Finally, this book focuses on the paradigmatic and policy dimensions and call for an innovative approach by analyzing the key themes in a complex and interrelated manner.

The Politics of Land and Food Scarcity

The Politics of Land and Food Scarcity PDF Author: Paolo De Castro
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0415638232
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 170

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Book Description
"This book aims to explore what the current state of knowledge is on the role of agricultural biodiversity in improving nutrition and food security. The book will examine and challenge some of the prevailing myths and assumptions to improving nutrition through agriculture mechanisms so as to identify the key research and implementation gaps"--

Biofuels, Land Grabbing and Food Security in Africa

Biofuels, Land Grabbing and Food Security in Africa PDF Author: Prosper B. Matondi
Publisher: Zed Books Ltd.
ISBN: 1848138814
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

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Book Description
The issue of biofuels has already been much debated, but the focus to date has largely been on Latin America and deforestation - this highly original work breaks fresh ground in looking at the African perspective. Most African governments see biofuels as having the potential to increase agricultural productivity and export incomes and thus strengthen their national economies, improving energy balances and rural employment. At the same time climate change may be addressed through reduction of green house gas emissions. There are, however, a number of uncertainties mounting that challenge this scenario. Using cutting-edge empirical case studies, this knowledge gap is addressed in a variety of chapters examining the effects of large-scale biofuel production on African agriculture. In particular, 'land grabbing' and food security issues are scrutinised, both of which have become vital topics in regard to the environmental and developmental governance of African countries. A revealing book for anyone wishing to understand the startling impact of biofuels and land grabbing on Africa.

New Challenges to Food Security

New Challenges to Food Security PDF Author: Ian Christoplos
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136777679
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 410

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Book Description
Food security is high on the political agenda. Fears about societal insecurity due to food price increases and hunger, grave scenarios regarding the effects of climate change and general uncertainty about the impacts of investments in biofuels and so-call “land grabbing” on food prices and availability have meant that food security is now recognised as being a multifaceted challenge. This book is unique in that it will bring together analyses of these different factors that impact on food security. This volume will describe a range of different perspectives on food security, with an emphasis on the various meanings that are applied to food security “crisis”. The challenges to be reviewed include market volatility, climate change and state fragility. Analyses of responses to food security crises and risk will cover rural and urban contexts, arenas of national policy formation and global food regimes, and investment in land and productive technologies. This book is unique in two respects. First, it takes a step back from the normative literature focused on specific factors of, for example, climate change, agricultural production or market volatility to look instead at the dynamic interplay between these new challenges. It helps readers to understand that food security is not one discourse, but is rather related to how these different factors generate multiple risks and opportunities. Second, through the case studies the book particularly emphasises how these factors come together at local levels as farmers, entrepreneurs, consumers, local government officials and others are making key decisions about what will be done to address food security and whose food security will be given priority. The book will explore how food production and consumption is embedded in powerful political and market forces and how these influence local actions.

Beyond the Global Land Grab

Beyond the Global Land Grab PDF Author: Gustavo de L. T. Oliveira
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000478440
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
The conjunction of climate, food, and financial crises in the late 2000s triggered renewed interest in farmland and agribusiness investments around the world. This phenomenon became known as the "global land grab", and sparked vibrant debates among social movements, NGOs, international development agencies and various government agencies and academics worldwide. This book addresses four key areas that are moving the debate "beyond land grabs". These include the role of contract farming and differentiation among farm workers in the consolidation of farmland; the broader forms of dispossession and mechanisms of control and value grabbing beyond "classic" land grabs for agricultural production; discourses about, and responses to, Chinese agribusiness investments abroad; and the relationship between financialization and land grabbing. The chapters in this edited volume propose new directions to deepen and even transform the research agenda on land struggles and agro-industrial restructuring around the world. This book will be of great interest to scholars and researchers interested in development studies, agrarian changes and land struggles. The chapters in this book were originally published as a special issue of the journal, Globalizations.

Land Grabbing and Global Governance

Land Grabbing and Global Governance PDF Author: Matias E. Margulis
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134952163
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
Land grabbing per se is not a new phenomenon, given its historical precedents in the eras of imperialism. However, the character, scale, pace, orientation and key drivers of the recent wave of land grabs is a distinct historical event closely tied to the changing dynamics of the global agri-food, feed and fuel complex. Land grabbing is facilitated by ever greater flows of capital, goods, and ideas across borders, and these flows occur through axes of power that are far more polycentric than the North-South imperialist tradition. Land grabs occur in the context of changes in the character of the global food regime, formerly anchored by North Atlantic empires; the integrated food-energy complex seems to be headed towards multiple centres of power, especially with the rise of the BRICS and the proliferation of middle income countries participating in many of the land transactions. Land Grabbing and Global Governance offers insights from leading scholars and experts on contemporary land grabs. This volume examines land grabs in direct relation to a global economy undergoing profound change and the role of new configurations of actors and power in governance institutions and practices. This book was published as a special issue of Globalizations.