Large-scale Land Acquisitions Research Articles

Land Grabbing and Development: The Case of Ethiopia

Since African decolonization and independence, foreign land acquisitions for agriculture have surged in Sub-Saharan Africa, notably transforming agricultural production. This “land grabbing” phenomenon is particularly pronounced in the Horn of Africa, especially Ethiopia. This study assesses the impact of land grabbing on Ethiopia’s development, targeting economic, environmental, and quality of life dimensions. Development is viewed as multifaceted, spanning beyond merely economic aspects. The research delves into the land-grabbing phenomenon in Sub-Saharan Africa and Ethiopia, focusing on policy and legal frameworks for large-scale commercial agriculture. It then explores the effects of large-scale land acquisition on Ethiopia’s development in terms of economy, environment, and quality of life. The analysis reveals that land grabbing profoundly affects Ethiopia’s development. Although some economic benefits exist, the negatives like environmental degradation and food insecurity greatly outweigh the positives. Consequently, the study advises prioritizing alternatives and strategies favoring Ethiopia’s economic development and people’s well-being.

The impact of large-scale land acquisitions on child food insecurity in Africa

Food insecurity is a major concern in most African countries. Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) frequently have a negative impact on local communities. In this paper, I examine the impact of LSLAs on the nutritional status of neighboring children. To this end, I use a difference-in-differences methodology applied to LSLAs in a large number of African countries at different times since the early 2000s. I analyze data from Demographic and Health Surveys combined with data from the Land Matrix Initiative, supplemented by my own research, ultimately covering 18,276 children living in the vicinity of 45 LSLAs. I show that LSLAs have had a significant negative impact on child nutrition in Africa over the past two decades. Specifically, the dietary diversity scores of children living close to LSLAs were reduced by 20 per cent after acquisition. The results are robust to various statistical tests. I find no changes in work status or household assets. While the impact of LSLAs may be positive for agricultural practices, it is negative for child food security. The analysis highlights the importance of supporting local communities following foreign agricultural investment.

Effect of large-scale land acquisition by domestic and international entities on farm investment in northern Ghana

Rural households remained the access-marginalized demographic in Africa despite massive land rushes by both domestic and foreign enterprises. As a result, investment decisions made by agricultural households are affected. To resolve this issue, a study that examines how exposure to large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) impacts people's agricultural investment decisions is required. Using data from 664 households selected using a multistage sampling technique, we examined the nexus between LSLA under local and foreign organizations and short-term investment (STI) and long-term investments (LTI) in land-improving measures. The results revealed that although LSLA under domestic and foreign entities tends to have a negative and statistically significant impact on the probability of LTI, it has a positive and significant impact on the probability of doing so for STI. The results also showed a simultaneity between LSLA and farm investment. Thus, giving farmers legal ownership safeguards them as they undertake LTI. To encourage household investment and reduce further exposure to LSLA, improvements in legal land ownership can be made.

Responding to ‘land grabs' in rural Eastern Germany: emancipatory agrarian politics in the context of authoritarian populism

ABSTRACT Large-scale land acquisitions harm small-scale farmers in rural Eastern Germany, increasingly prompting political attention and denunciation of the phenomenon as ‘land grabbing'. However, counter-framings are not necessarily progressive and may inadvertently fuel right-wing populist narratives, complicating the fight against neo-liberal restructuring of the countryside. This article explores progressive agrarian collectives' alternative framings in Eastern Germany, examining their interpretations of ‘land grabbing’. Amid growing authoritarian populist sentiments in rural areas, a comparative analysis of Arbeitsgemeinschaft Bäuerliche Landwirtschaft and Bündnis Junge Landwirtschaft shows different approaches to framing the problem and highlights the importance of holistic, inclusive narratives in countering these challenges.

Land rush

ABSTRACT Studies and debates on the issue of land grabs have generated multiple terms and concepts that are used loosely and interchangeably, such as large-scale land acquisitions, land grab, land deals, land enclosure, and land rush, among others. Explanations and critiques of such terms have built and enriched our knowledge. Yet, there is one term that has been under-explored: land rush. Here, we offer our own definition of a ‘land rush’, which has a different meaning from the other commonly used terms. These differences have important theoretical, methodological and political extensions and implications. Applying the lens of ‘land rush’ requires us to adjust our focus, and shows that the literature and public debates have focused on ‘concluded, operational land acquisitions’; they have tended to be dismissive of ‘failed land deals’, blind to ‘pin prick’ types of land accumulation, and have rarely taken the ‘land rush’ itself as the unit of inquiry and subject of public debate in any systematic way. This has led to a fragmented knowledge. Using the concept of the ‘land rush’ enables us to connect the issue of land grabs to broader global social life more effectively. As such, it is a key concept in Critical Agrarian Studies.

Unveiling the drivers of large-scale land acquisitions in Asian countries: society, economy and environment

ABSTRACT The rapid surge in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) has been triggered by the convergence of food, financial and environmental crises in the late 2000s. Since the 2008 commodity price spike, several Asian countries have become preferential targets for LSLAs carried out by foreign companies and governments. The rising interest in Asian farmlands and natural resources arose in a complex set of political transitions and socioeconomic dynamics that have shaped the whole continent in the last decades. This study relies on a dataset built on different data sources, from 2003 to 2021 for a total of 14,724 million hectares involved in LSLAs in Asia. The southeastern region is the most targeted one, with Indonesia and the Philippines as the principal host countries. The main investors are intraregional and, especially in private or stock-exchange listed companies, are from China and Malaysia, who intend to produce palm oil or rubber. Results partially confirm the initial hypothesis, showing that the endowment of land and water resources in host countries is positively related to the amount of land acquired. Findings also show that investors are looking for free market areas, with low trade barriers and low fiscal pressure, where the protection of workers’ rights is lower than that in their homeland.

Intimate exclusion and pastoralist elites' role in large scale-land acquisition in Kenya

ABSTRACTMany large-scale land acquisition studies focus on the role of powerful transnational corporations, foreign and domestic governments. Instead, we shift the focus to the role of local actors, in this case, pastoralists in Samburu County, Kenya. Here, we apply the concept of ‘intimate exclusion’ and show that pastoralist elites' desire and ability to maximise productive and financial gains from customary land, coupled with their privileged understanding of land-related laws and regulations and ability to use or threaten others with violence, enables the control of extensive customary lands and the exclusion of weaker pastoralists. These processes, we find, are rooted in the country's capitalist development trajectory traceable to colonial rule. Overall, the paper highlights local ‘homegrown’ actors’ role in large-scale land acquisition, how social intimacy provides space and opportunity for unequal benefits and how historical gains offer unique opportunities to gain from new political and economic developments.

Towards a science of ‘land grabbing’

In the past two decades, large-scale land transactions (LSLTs), commonly known as land grabs or large-scale land acquisitions, have been pursued by agricultural investors and host-country governments in Lower- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC) to boost crop yield. Existing knowledge on LSLTs is highly diverse, generated by scholars taking a wide range of perspectives and frameworks. However, the global patterns of LSLT-related research and their potential shortcomings remain under-investigated. In this paper, we analyze 370 peer-reviewed papers on LSLTs to advance this field of knowledge towards a science of ‘land grabbing’. Our findings reveal that 1) research on LSLTs displays geographical imbalances; 2) global statistics do not fully capture the complexity of LSLTs on the ground; 3) different disciplinary interests and theoretical traditions result in different use of terms in referring to LSLTs and divergent impressions of their social consequences; and 4) the environmental consequences of LSLTs are under-studied relatively. We suggest that a better understanding of LSLTs could result from greater engagement with each discipline’s strength and epistemic frameworks.

Transnational large-scale land investments in developing economies: What role do formal institutions play?

This paper examines how institutions impact large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in the peri-urban city of a developing economy. That is, by examining the documented formal rules of the Lagos market and their enforcement procedures, it identifies the specific role the institutional framework of the market plays in the distribution of the impacts of large-scale land-based investments amongst host communities. The paper proceeds by examining the spate of transnational large-scale land-based investments on a global scale. It considers the issues driving the sustained interests of international investors such as transnational corporations in acquiring large swathes of land, mostly in developing countries, alongside the apparent global patterns of these investments. The paper employs a qualitative research strategy involving in-depth semi-structured interviews conducted with key stakeholders in the LSLA that is prompted by the Lekki Free Trade Zone project in Lagos, Nigeria. That is, key government representatives, international investors in the project and representatives of the host communities. Our empirical investigations and analyses show that where property rights are poorly delineated and assigned in the formal institutional prescriptions governing LSLA in a market, institutions may become an unintended means of impoverishment and exclusivity, thereby defeating the public good imperative of LSLAs in such markets. The paper further suggests some policy directions for strengthening the institutions of the Lagos market towards achieving equity, transparency and accountability in the conduct of transnational LSLAs.

The Impact of Resettlement on Quality of Life in Ghana: The Mediating Role of Residential Satisfaction

The effects of large-scale land acquisitions for development projects such as mining, urbanization and dams are widely contested in the literature. Prior research has focused on the difficulties that resettlement poses for the affected families in terms of their capacity to meet the demands of the new community. This study suggests that resettlement (built environment) quality may act as a predictor and influence the residential satisfaction and quality of life of project-affected families. This study investigates how residential satisfaction influences the relationship between the quality of the dwelling, the context of resettlement homes, and the quality of life of mining-affected families in Ghana. A sample of 256 household heads displaced by a large-scale mining project in Ellembelle was used to evaluate the suggested model. The findings indicate that resettlement quality greatly enhances the quality of life of the mining-affected families. The findings also revealed that residential satisfaction was a significant mediator of the quality of dwellings and the context of the resettlement, in addition to being a strong predictor of quality of life. Indirectly, resident characteristics, such as socioeconomic and demographic conditions, influenced how people felt about their homes and quality of life. These results indicate that residential satisfaction and resettlement quality are accurate indicators of the mining-affected families’ quality of life. Integrating these features make it possible to quantify the mining-affected families’ quality of life for future research and public policy.

The Impact of Large-scale Agricultural Investments in Low-income Economies

Recent years have witnessed an increasing interest in large-scale agricultural land acquisitions in developing countries. The accompanying socio-economic implications have been areas of debate among politicians, policymakers and development agents. This paper argues that the traditional way of simulating the impacts of these investments in developing countries is misleading as the approach implies that the new investments are identical to the semi-subsistence way of farming that dominates agricultural practices in the host countries. In this study, we incorporate the peculiarity of large-scale agro-investments into an existing database for economy-wide models, i.e., social accounting matrix (SAM), and capture welfare and distributional outcomes properly. SAM-based multiplier models applied to Ethiopian data justify the need to account for the peculiarity of the investments in terms of production technology and their geographic distribution.

Large-scale land acquisitions exacerbate local farmland inequalities in Tanzania

Land inequality stalls economic development, entrenches poverty, and is associated with environmental degradation. Yet, rigorous assessments of land-use interventions attend to inequality only rarely. A land inequality lens is especially important to understand how recent large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) affect smallholder and indigenous communities across as much as 100 million hectares around the world. This paper studies inequalities in land assets, specifically landholdings and farm size, to derive insights into the distributional outcomes of LSLAs. Using a household survey covering four pairs of land acquisition and control sites in Tanzania, we use a quasi-experimental design to characterize changes in land inequality and subsequent impacts on well-being. We find convincing evidence that LSLAs in Tanzania lead to both reduced landholdings and greater farmland inequality among smallholders. Households in proximity to LSLAs are associated with 21.1% (P = 0.02) smaller landholdings while evidence, although insignificant, is suggestive that farm sizes are also declining. Aggregate estimates, however, hide that households in the bottom quartiles of farm size suffer the brunt of landlessness and land loss induced by LSLAs that combine to generate greater farmland inequality. Additional analyses find that land inequality is not offset by improvements in other livelihood dimensions, rather farm size decreases among households near LSLAs are associated with no income improvements, lower wealth, increased poverty, and higher food insecurity. The results demonstrate that without explicit consideration of distributional outcomes, land-use policies can systematically reinforce existing inequalities.

Fair compensation in large-scale land acquisitions: Fair or fail?

Despite the existence of a legal framework defining the right to fair compensation, and notwithstanding the vast literature on transnational and domestic land deals, no theory has been developed so far to allow for a specific analysis of the economics of fair compensation in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs), limiting our understanding of the underlying reasons of success or failure of this important legal protection mechanism. Building on the review of the existing literature on fair compensation and on the critical examination of several real-world case studies, this paper fills this gap by developing a three-player sequential game, which captures the peculiarities of fair compensation in large-scale land deals. We show that, under specific but not uncommon circumstances, the local community will be offered a zero-compensation as a rational consequence of the players’ optimisation, and this will lead to a land conflict, with all players incurring additional costs. Our findings suggest that local populations will be offered – and willing to accept – a compensation that is smaller than their original livelihood, unless they can oppose the land deal at no cost. Thus, the right to consent is inextricably related to the right to reject in LSLAs. If the former is frictionless while the latter comes at a cost, then there is space for strategic behaviours that exploit power imbalances and discretionary processes, and the fair compensation right is, in practice, weakened.

BFASTm-L2, an unsupervised LULCC detection based on seasonal change detection – An application to large-scale land acquisitions in Senegal

In the context of Global Change Research, detection, monitoring and characterization of land use/land cover (LULC) changes are of prime importance. The increasing availability of dense satellite image time series (SITS) has led to a shift in the change detection paradigm, with algorithms able to exploit the full temporal information laid down in SITS. So far, most of these algorithms have focused on the detection of abrupt and gradual changes, and thus developed breakpoint detection based on significant deviations from the mean. However, LULC changes may manifest themselves in other patterns, particularly changes in seasonality (amplitude, number and length of the growing seasons) that are harder to detect. In this paper, we propose a simple method to automatically select the breakpoint linked to the biggest seasonal change in long and dense SITS with multiple breakpoints. This approach - BFASTm-L2 - relies on linking a high-speed algorithm (BFAST monitor) with a time series similarity metric (Euclidian distance L2) sensitive to seasonal changes. The capacity of BFASTm-L2 to identify the date of change in different situations was tested on two data sets, and compared to the performances of three other algorithms (BFAST monitor, BFAST lite, and Edyn). The data sets are 1. a published benchmark data set composed of 25 200 simulated SITS with different change types and change magnitudes, and 2. the 2000–2020 MODIS NDVI SITS over a 200x200 pixels area in Senegal including different study sites which have undergone recent LULC changes due to agricultural large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) (as reported in the ground field database used in this study). The results show that BFASTm-L2 is efficient in accurately detecting in time most of the changes, and, in contrast with BFAST Lite and BFASTmonitor, to spatially highlight LSLAs-induced changes without the need of any prior knowledge. The automatic proposed approach, faster than BFAST Lite and Edyn, and with very few tuneable parameters, may thus be easily implemented in unsupervised pipelines to map and analyse generic LULC changes at regional scale.

The Predicament of Land Acquisition, Displacement and Resettlement: An Analysis of Indian Scenario

India is the fifth largest economy and stands third in purchasing power parity, according to a report by International monetary fund. According to the 2011 census, 31.16% of India’s total population lived in cities in 2011. Due to population growth and economic growth, construction is rapidly increasing. This is one of the reasons for expanding land use in urban areas. People are adversely impacted by the mega-development projects the State and government initiated. Large-scale land acquisition has resulted in the displacement of people from their land, forests and homes. India has been experiencing certain challenges in rehabilitating the individuals whose lives were disrupted by the construction of industrial projects, which is the primary motivation for this action. Failure to adequately implement resettlement and rehabilitation (R&R) strategies and plans results in various obstacles for the People and the governments. Even the Supreme Court has noticed that while dealing with rehabilitation and displacement, there is some administrative deficiency on the part of the State. This paper embarks on the study of land acquisition issues in India while dealing with the newly implemented ‘The Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013’ and Rule 2014, the idea of eminent domain, and the acquisitions took place historically in India.

Large-Scale Land Acquisition and Household Farm Investment in Northern Ghana

Many studies have investigated the effects of large-scale land acquisition (LSLA) on livelihood, while the effects of LSLA by different actors on investment decisions and levels of investment have largely gone without academic scrutiny. Consequently, information concerning the implications of LSLA by actors on investment is scarce in the literature pertaining to policy. Drawing on information from 664 households selected through a multistage sampling technique, this study examined the relationship between direct and indirect exposure to LSLA by domestic and foreign entities and investment in land-improving techniques. The results show a bi-directional relationship between LSLA and household farm investments. While direct and indirect exposure to LSLA by domestic and foreign entities dissipates some forms of farm investments, the reverse causality is also possible where some household farm investments discourage direct and indirect exposure to LSLA by domestic and foreign entities. The results also revealed that LSLA by domestic and foreign entities dissipates investment in all levels of land- and yield-improving techniques, and even in the presence of a high perception of tenure security. Thus, the provision of legal ownership of land to farmers can provide insurance for investments in all land-improving techniques. Government can also step up the fertilizer subsidy program to enable households to increase investment to avoid further exposure to LSLA.

Towards solar extractivism? A political ecology understanding of the solar energy and agriculture boom in rural China

Contemporary global climate change imperative has stimulated innovative technological systems to combine renewable energy production and other socioeconomic functions, which offer promising solutions to materialize both climate change mitigation and developmental targets. Agrivoltaics—an array of colocation models of solar photovoltaic (PV) infrastructure and agriculture—are becoming increasingly popular across the world and are widely considered a laudable green development model. Since circa 2013, agrivoltaics have started to diffuse across China, with promises of multiple socioeconomic and ecological benefits. Different from existent studies that mostly took apolitical innovation diffusion frameworks, this article draws on an in-depth case study and multiple secondary sources including information on 421 agrivoltaic projects to approach the proliferation of agrivoltaics in China through a political ecology lens. It finds that the diffusion of agrivoltaics in China has been driven neither by technological superiority nor by market-business viability but by a salient logic of solar extractivism in the name of green development. The solar extractivism is featured by: large-scale (agricultural) land acquisition, prioritization of solar electricity production, domination of renewable industries, deep engagement from local state, discourses of green transition and inclusive development, exclusionary enforcement techniques, and neglect of local socioecological systems. The stark contrast between discourses and realities reveals that the deployment of agrivoltaics embodies solar extractivism and the implicated “green agenda” served rather as a legitimation strategy for resource extraction. The solar extractivism perspective cautions against the fetishism of renewables and relevant green infrastructures in popular green development discourses and calls for critical examination of renewable integrative technical models through social justice lenses.

Transnational agricultural land acquisitions threaten biodiversity in the Global South

Agricultural large-scale land acquisitions have been linked with enhanced deforestation and land use change. Yet the extent to which transnational agricultural large-scale land acquisitions (TALSLAs) contribute to—or merely correlate with—deforestation, and the expected biodiversity impacts of the intended land use changes across ecosystems, remains unclear. We examine 178 georeferenced TALSLA locations in 40 countries to address this gap. While forest cover within TALSLAs decreased by 17% between 2000 and 2018 and became more fragmented, the spatio-temporal patterns of deforestation varied substantially across regions. While deforestation rates within initially forested TALSLAs were 1.5 (Asia) to 2 times (Africa) higher than immediately surrounding areas, we detected no such difference in Europe and Latin America. Our findings suggest that, whereas TALSLAs may have accelerated forest loss in Asia, a different mechanism might emerge in Africa where TALSLAs target areas already experiencing elevated deforestation. Regarding biodiversity (here focused on vertebrate species), we find that nearly all (91%) studied deals will likely experience substantial losses in relative species richness (−14.1% on average within each deal)—with mixed outcomes for relative abundance—due to the intended land use transitions. We also find that 39% of TALSLAs fall at least partially within biodiversity hotspots, placing these areas at heightened risk of biodiversity loss. Taken together, these findings suggest distinct regional differences in the nature of the association between TALSLAs and forest loss and provide new evidence of TALSLAs as an emerging threat to biodiversity in the Global South.

Against corruption and promoting socio-economic development in Vietnam today through amending the law on state acquisition of land for socio-economic development for the national or public benefit

this article analyzes and evaluates Vietnam’s current legal provisions on State land acquisition for socio-economic development in the national or public interest. Since implementation, many legal loopholes have been revealed, such as large-scale land acquisition, “cheap” compensation for acquired property, and coercive land acquisitions. These have created additional opportunities for corrupt officials and enterprises with a close and mutually profitable relationship, putting the people whose land is to be acquired into difficulties and poverty. Amending the law to close these loopholes is necessary to combat corruption, ensure the interests of people whose land is to be acquired, and promote Vietnam’s socio-economic development.

Influence of Livelihood Assets on the Livelihood Outcomes of Smallholder Farmers in the Bawku East District of Northern Ghana

This research paper is a result of a study that assessed the influence of livelihood assets (the human, natural, physical, social, financial, assets) on the outcomes of smallholder farmers in Bawku East District in Northern Ghana. The study adopted a descriptive and correlational study design and employed mixed methods approach. It surveyed and interviewed 400 respondents and study participants in four villages in the Bawku East District that were affected by large scale land acquisitions for community development projects and by individuals for residential purposes. It was found out that, in terms of the importance of livelihood assets in the Bawku East District; Financial Capital is of most importance to the participants (Cum. mean 4.5275), followed by Physical capital (Cum. mean 4.3175) and social capital (Cum. mean 4.3175), Natural Capital (Cum. mean 4.31), and the least is Human Capital Assets (Cum. mean 3.395). This also means that the farmers in the Bawku East District do not have a strong human capital as compared to the others. But then, need more financial capital to be productive and survive due to the high rate of land acquisition. The results show that there is high level of experience in crop farming among farmers in Bawku East District (M = 4.04), and this experience is an important human capital asset that need to be relied on among farmers for better livelihoods.