Controversial farmland deals in developing countries can have a
negative impact on the people who live on the land, according to a new U.N. report. While investment in agriculture is essential to help developing
countries reduce hunger and poverty, the U.N. Food and Agriculture
Organization says these large-scale “land grabs” don’t always help. The surging global demand for food, fodder and fuel crops is driving a land rush in parts of the developing world. Investors are pouring money into large-scale farmland leases in Africa, Asia, former Soviet countries and elsewhere.
‘Daylight robbery’
The Gambella region of Ethiopia is home to many such leases. It is also home to some of the last best farmland on Earth. The Ethiopian government says it has leased more than 225,000
hectares to foreign investors, who have put more than $2 billion into
the deals.
Ethiopian officials say this is just the kind of agricultural
development the country needs to modernize farming, improve food
production and provide jobs. Obang Metho, who grew up in Gambella, sees it differently. “I am not anti-investment,” he says. “But I am anti-daylight robbery. What is going on in Africa is robbery.” Metho heads the Solidarity Movement for a New Ethiopia, an activist
group based in Washington. He says farmers in Gambella have been pushed
off their land to make way for companies from China, India and Saudi
Arabia that are exporting the harvest back to the home country. Human Rights Watch estimates that 42 percent of the land in the region is leased or on offer.