Africa: Could regulation ease fears over land grabs?

The ‘land rush’ across Africa by international investors should be regulated to protect smallholder farmers from deals that could leave them landless and hungry.

Farmer organisations, civil society representatives and researchers at a debate at the European Development Days expressed concern about the impact of selling or leasing large tracts of land to foreign governments and companies. They fear it will harm Africa’s ability to feed itself by improving the productivity of its small holder farmers.

The Eastern Africa Farmers Federation (EAFF) says these land deals exclude farmers and threaten their livelihoods.

“We have seen land acquisition taking place in Africa and the trend has been accelerated by the food and energy crisis,” said EAFF president Philip Kiriro.

“The victims of land acquisitions depend on agriculture and we are worried about the acquisition arrangements. Who are the players? Government to government, private companies and government: it is not the people and government, and it’s not the indigenous private sector. Our priority is to ensure we have well-negotiated policies to govern land.”

Citing 2008 figures from Food and Agriculture Organisation, Kiriro said Africa is estimated to have in excess of 800 million hectares of cultivatable land yet only 197 million hectares are being farmed.

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