Large-scale Land Investments Research Articles

Effects of Large-Scale Agricultural Land Investment on Local Communities Livelihoods: Evidence from Bambasi Woreda, Western Ethiopia

Most of the African countries including Ethiopia are often known by problem of large scale agricultural land investment effects on the local community where land is being transferred to investment. Even though several efforts made so far to solve the overall effects of large scale agricultural land investment situation, the challenge is still widespread problem in Ethiopia. Hence the study project's purpose was to find out how large agricultural investments in Bambasi Woreda, Western Ethiopia impact the livelihoods of the surrounding populations and examine the local communities' participation in the large scale agricultural investment. In order to attain these objectives, data were collected from 330 randomly selected households in four purposively selected kebeles of the district for both control groups and treatment groups. The sample size was chosen using a multistage stratified random sampling technique. Both qualitative and quantitative data gathering techniques and instruments were employed in the study. Besides, the instruments utilized to collect the data were observations, focus groups, interviews, household surveys, and document reviews. Data was analyzed using both descriptive statistics and econometric methods. The study shows that out of the total sampled respondents 30 of the treatment group and 13 percent of control group reveal that the project provided opportunity in terms of employment opportunity, technology transfer, utilization of agricultural inputs, changing the working culture of the community and productivity. The chie square value shows there is statistical significance among treated and control group on opportunity investment provided for the household and community. A binary logit regression model was used to describe how large-scale agriculture land investment affected the local community's standard of living. The findings indicated that only six variables were found to be significant out of the characteristics that were expected to influence local community employment in large-scale agricultural land investment projects. These includes household's educational accomplishment, size of HH, occupation of HH, Loss of useful land due to investment Project and technology transfer significantly and positively affected the employment opportunity in large scale agricultural investment projects, whereas the distance of a household's home from an investment project has a negative impact. Large-scale agricultural investments have a detrimental influence on household wealth accumulation and income, according to the estimation results of the average treatment effects on the treated. The management and implementation of land transfer for large-scale agricultural investment projects is inadequate, lack of openness, absence of community consultation, natural forest degradation, socio-economic and ecological effects must be carefully considered before transferring the land for large-scale agricultural investment.

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.

Large-scale agricultural land investments and food security in Nigeria

The study examines how large-scale agricultural land investments (LIs) affect household food security in Nigeria. It is one of the few studies in Nigeria that offers new empirical insights into household food security. Precisely, it unravels how LIs affect the livelihood outcomes of households in communities where LIs operate compared to households in communities without such LIs. This study engages the mixed methods of analysis involving quantitative and qualitative techniques. The quantitative data is drawn from the Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) utilising the Logistic regression technique. The qualitative aspect of this study involved fieldwork conducted in two distinct Nigerian states: Kwara State, situated in the North-Central region, and Ogun State, located in the South-West region. The qualitative findings further enrich the quantitative findings. It also helped to investigate the nature of jobs households engaged in and also the employment density of the investors’ farms which could not be done using the national representative data (LSMS). The results indicate that households in communities without land investments have 0.2% higher likelihood of being more food secure than households in communities with land investments and it is significant at 5%. The qualitative analysis reveals several key insights, including the observation that female headed households in communities with LIs are less likely to be food secure, receive less wages, and spend more time in communities with LIs. Government should put in place policies (for example, compensation policies) that will ensure that land deals are properly monitored and structured to benefit and protect the host communities. If the government fails to properly regulate land deals, rural people will always suffer. Also, they should monitor and control the activities, and the type of crops grown in investment farms so that land investments can bring about the desired benefits such as improvement in household livelihood and enhance food security in the communities where they exist.

Variations of Customary Tenure, Chiefly Power, and Global Norms for Responsible Land Investments in Sierra Leone

Abstract In response to debates around land grabbing, the international community has increasingly developed and promoted global governance norms and guidelines for more responsible land investments. This concern on the part of the international community has particularly taken hold in Sierra Leone—in a post-war context, in which international donor agencies are already steering much of the country’s politics. Yet, despite the enormous influence of international guidelines and the actors promoting their use, there is a spatial variation in the conformity to and effectiveness of such norms in cases of land investments. While some projects seem to resemble ‘showcases’ for their exemplary use, these guidelines seem to be absent in other projects. This article analyses the political economy of customary land tenure, land investments, and international ‘soft laws’ in Sierra Leone. Based on 6 months of fieldwork in Sierra Leone in 2019, I compare several cases of large-scale land investments. I argue that there are important variations in the customary tenure system in the degree to which political authority over land is centralized in the authority of the paramount chief or is devolved to landholding families. This, I suggest, holds important implications for the uptake of global norms for ‘responsible’ investments.

Smallholder Views on Chinese Agricultural Investments in Mozambique and Tanzania in the Context of VGGTs

Based on a case study in each country, this study documents the views of Mozambican and Tanzanian smallholders regarding Chinese agricultural investments and the extent to which investors abide by their legitimate land tenure rights as defined by the Voluntary Guidelines for the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Forests and Fisheries in the Context of National Food Security (VGGTs). The VGGTs offer guidelines to government on how to protect the land tenure of rural communities when land is being acquired for large-scale land investments. The study also assessed the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on smallholders. Due to COVID-19, instead of fieldwork, we conducted telephone interviews with 20 smallholders in Mozambique and 35 in Tanzania. The Mozambican case showed that even when land set aside for investors was not in dispute, smallholders still had unmet expectations, especially regarding investors’ corporate social responsibility activities. In the Tanzanian case, even though the land leased by the Chinese investor had been designated as general land, it had laid fallow for a long period, and smallholders had moved back onto the land, only to be displaced in 2017. Although smallholders’ views on the investment were mixed, the case underscored the need for government to assess current land use before allocating it to investors—regardless of how the land is classified and especially in areas where land shortages are creating conflict. The cases show that even if communities are consulted about proposed land investments, guidelines need to include clauses that allow for ongoing communications between investors, communities and government officials such that if communities are unsatisfied with the results of the investment, renegotiation is possible. Further, in the event of crises, such as COVID-19, investors should partner with communities and government to limit the extent of harm in communities as a result of the crisis.

Grabbed trust? The impact of large-scale land acquisitions on social trust in Africa

The livelihoods of rural populations in Africa are closely tied to small-scale farming. In recent years, private investors as well as governments have shown a growing interest in large-scale acquisition of arable land across the continent. While researchers have started to analyze the local economic and environmental impacts of such investments, their socio-political as well as psychological consequences remain poorly understood. This paper investigates how changes in land ownership patterns caused by large-scale land acquisitions affect the level of interpersonal trust among rural communities. We maintain that the transition from community and individual-smallholder land ownership into large-scale investor property has a negative impact on local levels of trust. Furthermore, we assume that the deterioration of trust caused by large-scale land investments is stronger among women than men. To test our claims, we connect circa 71,000 respondents from Afrobarometer surveys to georeferenced information on the location of land deals from 33 African countries. Relying on a difference-in-differences type of empirical strategy as well as an instrumental variable approach, we show that large-scale land investments indeed disrupt local social fabrics by reducing interpersonal trust. Our results suggest that trust in relatives is particularly affected by large-scale land acquisitions. In addition, we find that land deals reduce personalized trust among women but not necessarily among men.

Resilience of Ethiopian Agropastoral Households in the Presence of Large-Scale Land Investments

Agropastoral societies in Ethiopia and elsewhere in Africa are facing challenges in their land use. Land shifts toward large-scale land investments have exacerbated the scarcity of pastures, thus affecting the resilience of pastoral systems. In this study, we assessed how large-scale land investments affect household resilience using data from the Living Standards Measurement Survey in Ethiopia. We estimated household resilience capacity by a multivariate two-step factor analysis and welfare resilience from net changes in welfare outcomes between two survey intervals. We also assessed the effect of large-scale land investment on household resilience using random effects ordered logistic regression model. Factors that enhanced the resilience capacities of households included access to livestock markets, social safety nets, extension, mobility, and social services. Approximately one-third of the study population had a low resilience capacity, and more than half had low welfare resilience. Moreover, proximity to a large-scale land investment significantly reduced households' likelihood of having high resilience capacity. Therefore, future resilience programs in agropastoral areas should mitigate the adverse effect of large-scale land investments by enhancing livelihood diversification and households' access to communal pastures.

Large-scale land investments and land-use conflicts in the agro-pastoral areas of Ethiopia

We examined the determinants of conflict among agro-pastoral households in areas affected by large-scale land investments in Ethiopia. We combined household and community surveys to collect data and used descriptive statistics and a binary logit model to analyze them. The results indicated that, in the last decade, land conflicts were prevalent in more than a quarter of the studied communities and that they increased since the establishment of large-scale land investments. The scarcity of pastureland and tenure insecurity are the key drivers of land conflict. We conclude that the state appropriation of traditional pastures for industrial plantations and a lack of property rights for the commons exacerbate land conflicts.

Strategic spatial planning in emerging land-use frontiers: evidence from Mozambique

Land-use frontiers are territories with abundant land for agriculture and forestry, availability of natural resources relative to labor or capital and predisposed to rapid land-use change, often driven by large-scale land investments and capitalized actors, producing commodities for distal markets. Strategic spatial planning (SSP) represents a consolidated long-term governance practice across high- and low-income countries. One of the objectives of SSP processes is to articulate a more coherent and future-oriented spatial logic for the sustainability of land-use patterns and typologies, natural-resources protection, and investments. SSP may thus constitute a useful approach in addressing some of the challenges affecting land governance in frontier settings; to date, its potential contribution to land-use frontiers lacks explicit exploration. In this paper, we examine how SSP can play a role in governing land-use frontiers through a case-study analysis of Mozambique as an emerging frontier, located on the southeast coast of Africa. We gathered empirical evidence by interviewing experts involved in resource management, territorial planning, and development in the country. The theoretical spine of the paper builds on the literature focusing on land-use challenges and SSP. We show that emerging land-use frontiers face several challenges, such as transnational land deals and the intensification of commercial plantations. Interview data show that several structural factors are hindering the establishment of a long-term territorial development strategy. These are, among others, the short-termism of political cycles and the absence of a long-term strategic vision. Our analysis reveals that SSP processes could contribute to addressing land-use challenges in frontier contexts, such as poverty traps and land degradation spirals, should various local and distant actors join forces and marry interests. We conclude by presenting a systematic rationale, explaining how SSP could play a role in governing land-use frontiers, with a view to promoting the well-being and sustainability of rural communities.

Correction to: Broken promises: a rights-based analysis of marginalised livelihoods and experiences of food insecurity in large-scale land investments in Tanzania

Correction to: Broken promises: a rights-based analysis of marginalised livelihoods and experiences of food insecurity in large-scale land investments in Tanzania

Global Governance Meets Local Land Tenure: International Codes of Conduct for Responsible Land Investments in Uganda

Throughout the last decade, the international donor community has developed a plethora of regulatory initiatives for responsible agricultural investments. It remains unclear how such guidelines are invoked in practice in investment cases, and whether their use can prevent conflict and protect local land rights, as promoted. Uncovering how international guidelines work necessitates an understanding of the formal-legal setting and underlying land tenure regimes that shape investment projects. In Uganda, these contexts vary from region to region and investments take place on land held under various tenure regimes, including private, state-owned, and customary land. Based on 8 months of fieldwork in Uganda, I compare three cases of large-scale land investments in different settings and argue that variation in the underlying land tenure systems determines the variation, uneven applicability and effectiveness of global governance mechanisms.

Broken promises: a rights-based analysis of marginalised livelihoods and experiences of food insecurity in large-scale land investments in Tanzania

Proponents of large-scale land investments (LSLI) still promote them as a development opportunity, which can lead, among other benefits, to job creation and enhanced food security for local communities. However, there is increasing evidence that these investments often deprive affected communities of their access to land, with multiple negative impacts on livelihoods, food security and on the environment. This paper relies on empirical data to present an analysis of LSLI and food (in)security – crucially at the level of individuals in two villages in the Ruvuma region, Tanzania, over 10 years after the acquisition of village land within the Southern African Growth Corridor of Tanzania (SAGCOT). We introduce an innovative framework that permits an integration of a rights-based approach with the Sustainable Livelihoods Framework to explore smallholders’ livelihoods and experiences of food insecurity. Our paper demonstrates how this integration, along with attention we have given to the FAO’s PANTHER principles, adds the missing yet crucial dimension of accountability on the part of national governments as duty bearers. Our findings show that in the case of these two villages, the human rights principles of participation, accountability, transparency and empowerment are severely undermined, with women bearing the brunt in all these domains. This overall state of affairs is, we argue, due to inadequate monitoring and evaluation of LSLI processes themselves and low levels of commitment on the part of institutions in Tanzania to monitor the promises made by investors. This in turn demonstrates an accountability deficit on the part of duty-bearers within LSLIs, and limited capacity of affected community members to claim their rights. Individual food insecurity experience in the two communities correlates, among other characteristics, with lack of land ownership, employment and income-generating activities. The rights-based livelihoods framework applied in this study points to serious deficiencies in the LSLI model as presently endorsed in SAGCOT, and emphasises the fact that access to land in Tanzania is a precondition for the realisation of the right to adequate food and thus a critical requirement for achieving and maintaining food and nutrition security. We conclude by arguing that progressive coalitions within and beyond national states must devise policies and institutions that empower individuals and civil society actors to make demands on their governments to respect, protect and fulfil their obligations regarding the legally enforceable right to food.

‘Developmental nationalism?’ Political trust and the politics of large-scale land investment in Magufuli's Tanzania

ABSTRACT Research on large-scale land investments (LSLIs) can provide valuable insights into the support for developmental nationalism in Tanzania today. ‘Developmental nationalism’ is ‘a creative variant of liberation’, which purports to make ‘Tanzania great again’. The nationalist turn of late President Magufuli was grounded in political ideology and the selective history of the past that swept him to power. However, there is limited research on how political practice around land investments contribute to trust and support for public institutions. This paper makes two key contributions to scholarship on the political economy of LSLIs. First, we examine the messy politics of LSLIs, the failures in design and implementation, and the rise in local support for developmental nationalism in two rural settings in Tanzania. Second, using Latent Class Analysis (LCA), we identify distinct groups of individuals based on their trust in the President, the ruling party (CCM), the Tanzania Investment Centre (TIC) and support for LSLIs. We define political trust as ‘an evaluative orientation towards an institution or government, based on people's normative expectations’.

Large scale land investments and food security in agropastoral areas of Ethiopia

In Ethiopia, large scale land investments have been expanding into pastoral regions. However, little is known about the consequences of these investments on the food security of the pastoral community. Using Living Standard Measurement Survey data of the World Bank, we find that, on average, about 32% of the respondents from the (agro-)pastoral regions are food insecure. After controlling for confounders, proximity to large scale land investments is associated with additional food intake of up to 745 kcal per day per adult compared to the households located farther away from a large scale land investment. Proximity to large scale land investment has no significant effect on the coping strategies based food security. For households located in proximity to a large scale land investment, food intake significantly increases with access to roads and markets. Proximity to a large scale land investment has a positive effect on household food consumption not necessarily because of direct benefits from large scale land investments, but due to land and soil quality near the large scale land investments.

GLOBAL LARGE-SCALE LAND INVESTMENT IN AFRICA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE ENVIRONMENT

The attainment of sustainable development goals (SDGs) in Africa will depend in part on its endowment, productivity and management of the land resource. Thus, due to the multipurpose usage of the land, there is more interest in its acquisition and usage, which often lead to competition among investors. More so, the intensive use of land for economic activities often impacts on the environment. This has implication for the target countries’ sustainable development. It is on this basis that this study investigates the effects of large-scale land investments on the environment. The study adopts the sample selection model to find that at the decision to invest, there is the tendency the environment gets more deplorable while the foreign investors sustainably use the land and this is not the case for domestic investors. At the actual large-scale land investment level, the foreign large-scale land investment has adverse effects on the environment, but they maintain sustainable use of land, while the domestic large-scale investment negatively impacts on both the environment and the sustainable land use. Climate change impeded the availability of large-scale land. Thus, although the large-scale land investments could mitigate the challenges of national food insecurity, there should be intense efforts by the government to continuously monitor and regulate the activities of these investors to conform with global environmental best practices.

Large‐scale land investments, household displacement, and the effect on land degradation in semiarid agro‐pastoral areas of Ethiopia

Agro-pastoral areas in Ethiopia have been targeted by large-scale land investments, particularly for the establishment of sugar plantations, since the 1970s. This has led to the displacement of local communities. We investigate the impact of this displacement due to large-scale land investment on land degradation in semiarid agro-pastoral areas in Ethiopia. We conducted a survey of 866 households in two agro-pastoral sites in Ethiopia in 2019, where extensive large-scale land investment was implemented. We use an endogenous (switching) treatment model to assess the effect of the displacement of households on land degradation. The result shows that 75% of the surveyed households experienced moderate–severe land degradation. Forestlands and grasslands are ranked as the most degraded areas. About 43.7% of the households face a reduction in herd size and 55.8% lost land due to large-scale land investment, while 86% of the households show a substantial decline in crops and livestock productivity due to land degradation. The results also reveal that the displacement of households leads to a significant increase in land degradation. Household exposure to drought and conflict, the number of livestock, overgrazing, and sharecropping are other drivers of land degradation. Market access, extension services, household income, and mobility, on the other hand, limit the occurrence of land degradation. We conclude that the shifts in property rights from common land used by pastoralists to private land in large-scale plantations aggravate land degradation in semiarid drylands.

Vernacularisation from above: finance’s appropriation of human rights in land governance

ABSTRACT The 2007/2008 triple crisis (finance, food and environment) prompted a new wave of land grabbing characterised by its financial dimension. In response, land governance initiatives have been implemented to regulate the social and environmental impacts of large-scale land investments. These initiatives use a human rights framework, but they remain disputed. In addition, they narrow down the relationship between finance and human rights to a subsidiary responsibility, suggesting that finance only influences human rights indirectly. In contrast, we put forward the concept of ‘vernacularisation from above’ to show that financial actors directly appropriate human rights in order to better serve their interests. By focusing on three land governance initiatives, we discuss how they tackle the issue of land access. We argue that financial actors impose a definition of land access in terms of land rights instead of recognizing the human right to land. Such a definition does not challenge unequal power relations related to land grabbing.

Tropical forest loss enhanced by large-scale land acquisitions

Tropical forests are vital for global biodiversity, carbon storage and local livelihoods, yet they are increasingly under threat from human activities. Large-scale land acquisitions have emerged as an important mechanism linking global resource demands to forests in the Global South, yet their influence on tropical deforestation remains unclear. Here we perform a multicountry assessment of the links between large-scale land acquisitions and tropical forest loss by combining a new georeferenced database of 82,403 individual land deals—covering 15 countries in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia—with data on annual forest cover and loss between 2000 and 2018. We find that land acquisitions cover between 6% and 59% of study-country land area and between 2% and 79% of their forests. Compared with non-investment areas, large-scale land acquisitions were granted in areas of higher forest cover in 11 countries and had higher forest loss in 52% of cases. Oil palm, wood fibre and tree plantations were consistently linked with enhanced forest loss while logging and mining concessions showed a mix of outcomes. Our findings demonstrate that large-scale land acquisitions can lead to elevated deforestation of tropical forests, highlighting the role of local policies in the sustainable management of these ecosystems. Tropical deforestation rates are linked to large-scale land investments, according to georeferenced land deal records and remote sensing of forest loss over the past two decades.

How and why large scale agricultural land investments do not create long-term employment benefits: A critique of the ‘state’ of labour regulations in Ghana

Support for large scale agricultural investments in Africa has been mainly premised on their employment prospects for local populations. However, despite earlier calls by Tania Li to centre labour in the land grabs debate, labour is generally invisible in both mainstream policy and academic research. This paper, through a governance lens, draws attention to the implications of the global land rush on wage labour. In principle, policy frameworks that emphasise the labour potentials from large-scale land investments also gravitate towards regulations that seek to facilitate capital accumulation and mitigate negative impacts on communities – congruent with Ghana’s policy direction. This paper assesses the political-economic context of the legislative gaps in the current governance framework for wage labour and large-scale agriculture in Ghana; characterised mainly by absent, illusively present and repressive institutions. It is supported with empirical findings from the nature of farm workers’ incorporation into a transnational oil palm plantation in Ghana, their struggles over the nature of the investment, and the political orientation of the existing regulatory institutions. The study calls for policy measures which address power relations that shape the distribution of benefits from land investments, and also recognise structural inequalities that exist in and outside of agriculture.

From conflict to cooperation: The trajectories of large scale land investments on land conflict reversal in Ghana

There have been studies on land-conflict and its implications through large scale land investments in Ghana and beyond. However, contrary to the negative conflict-implications of land investments, the effectiveness of conflict-reversal interventions has received little attention in academic and policy debates. This has led to a literature gap about land conflict reversal pathways and outcomes. This study thus, uses a case study design based on qualitative methods to introduce two communities of large scale land acquisitions (namely Agogo and Kpachaa) in Ghana where corporate investors took multiple steps to mediate conflicts with the ruralists vis-a-vis the secondary effects aftermath. The study identifies that the implementation of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) interventions and benefit sharing mechanisms have had deescalating effects on land conflicts in the communities involved. In the case of Agogo, it was noticed that the conflict reversal pathways were the investor’s decision to change investment from biofuel to food crops, the establishment of formal rent payment system and the running of flexible and rotational job schemes for community members. On the other hand, Kpachaa saw conflict reversal through corporate interventions towards infrastructure development, inputs and technical support, jobs and training programmes and derestricted communal access to unused land spaces and economic trees for local livelihood sustainability. Based on the findings, the study argues that the establishment of land conflict reversal guidelines (in which corporate investors play a key role in tackling conflicts) could help in mitigating land conflicts in Ghana and other countries subjected to large-scale land investments11We define large scale land investment as any investment either private or public or both that involves the acquisition of land from 50 acres as regarded by Ghana’s Lands Commission. .