Recently leaked draft report from the World Bank, The Global Land Rush: Can it Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits, challenges the publicly held position of the World Bank on investments in agricultural lands in poor nations – a trend that has come to be popularly known as land grabbing. Although such investments have been hailed by the World Bank as a way to generate jobs and infrastructure, the report states, “investors are targeting countries with weak laws, buying arable land on the cheap, and failing to deliver on promises of jobs and investments,” and in some cases inflict serious damage on the local resource base. Conclusions of the leaked report confirm those of(Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in the Global Land Grab, a report released by the Oakland Institute in April this year.

The Bank's report is certainly a surprising turn of events given that the Bank's private sector arm, International Finance Corporation (IFC), has not only legitimized the land grab trend but effectively facilitated and promoted it. The key question is how this acknowledgment will be integrated into the work of the Bank’s agencies which have increased the ability of foreign investors to acquire land in developing country markets. This calls for heightened scrutiny of the Bank’s activities in promoting investor-friendly policies that spur foreign direct investment in agriculture in poor countries, and holding it accountable instead of allowing it to sweep the damning findings under the rug.

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Interest in how our food is grown has been rekindled in recent years, with particular interest in sustainable agriculture. But what exactly is sustainable agriculture? The National Research Council (NRC) upped the ante with the publication of Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems for the 21st Century in June 2010. The 570-page report aims to distill principles of practice that can underlie agricultural production across geographies and scales, with a particular focus on applying practices—drawn from the U.S. experience—in less developed countries, specifically sub-Saharan Africa.

The NRC report sidesteps the debate about what sustainable agriculture is by arguing that the “pursuit of sustainability is not a matter of defining sustainable or unsustainable agriculture, but rather is about assessing whether choices of farming practices and systems would lead to a more or less sustainable system.

The NRC also strongly emphasizes that scientific knowledge is the necessary foundation to progress toward sustainability, stating that “[s]cience generates the knowledge needed to predict the likely outcomes of different management systems and expands the range of alternatives that can be considered by farmers, policy makers, and consumers.” While science is important to the development and refinement of sustainability practices and policies, a central question to ask is where do farmers fit?

The NRC report makes surprisingly little reference to farmers’ knowledge in the American context, while encouraging researchers to include farmer-participatory research or farmer-managed trials as a component of their research. But is this kind of partnership really about placing farmers’ knowledge on a level playing field with that of scientists?

The stated objective of farmer involvement is to “enhance information exchange and enhance farmers’ adoption of new practices and approaches” a formulation that emphasizes a flow of information from scientists to farmers, not the other way around... When farmers can offer new innovations and advances in farming practices as well as an understanding of what approaches have worked and not worked over decades and even generations of diligent trial-and-error on a given piece of land.

Katy Mamen, OI Fellow, explores these questions in Making a Place at the Table for Farmers in the Future of Sustainable Agriculture.

A new report, The High Food Price Challenge: A Review of Responses to Combat Hunger, released by the UK Hunger Alliance and the Oakland Institute, reveals that a major initiative on food security, launched by the Group of 8 (G8) in July 2009, has failed to address the global hunger crisis, which currently affects more than a billion people.

The L’Aquila Food Security Initiative launched in July 2009 to support food security, nutrition, and sustainable agriculture, promised $20 billion worth of investment over three years. However, one year on from the L’Aquila commitments, it is evident that the international response to the food price crisis has been insufficient and often inappropriate, despite rising levels of hungry people.

Based on a thorough review of national and international responses to global hunger and featuring case studies from individual countries and regions that confronted the food price crisis using diverse strategies, The High Food Price Challenge shows that, beyond providing aid money, it is imperative that governments and international institutions rethink their policies to mitigate hunger and it proposes concrete measures.

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“Africa needs investment in agriculture—better seeds and inputs, improved extension services, education on conservation techniques, regional integration, and investment to build local capacity. It does not need policies that enable foreign investors to grow and export food for their own people to the detriment of the local population. I’ll be even bolder—such policies will hurt Africa, fueling conflict over land and water…Africa is not a commodity. It must not be labeled “open for business.”

-– Howard G. Buffett, Foreword, (Mis)Investment in Agriculture

(Mis)Investment in Agriculture: The Role of the International Finance Corporation in the Global Land Grab, exposes the role of the World Bank’s private sector branch, International Finance Corporation (IFC), in fueling land grabs, especially in Africa.

Following the 2008 food and financial crises, World Bank was to play a central role in what was intended to be a massive overhaul in international food policy and a vast improvement to food security in the developing world. Evidence, however, reveals that World Bank Group policies and efforts are doing just the opposite. IFC is promoting “products” – such as the ‘Access to Land’ and the ‘Land Market for Investment’ whose purpose is to open land access to investors. Further more the creation of “investment promotion agencies” and rewriting of national laws, has provided the institutional back up for such investments. In doing so, it has overlooked the urgent problem of hunger that persists in client countries, and lost sight of its principle mission, which is to alleviate poverty.

(Mis)Investment in Agriculture concludes that the promotion of investor access into developing country land markets threatens local food security, displaces local populations, and therefore operates in direct violation of IFC’s Performance Standards as well as several UN Human Rights Conventions. The Report contends that it is crucial that IFC be investigated and held accountable for the land grabs promoted by its technical assistance and advisory services. World Bank’s current practices that promote land grabs must be stopped in order to protect the food security and livelihoods of the world’s most vulnerable populations.

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Download the Foreword by Howard G. Buffett

On March 11, 2010, nearly 100 civil society organizations from 38 countries demanded that World Bank Group lending to private corporations be much more responsive to environmental and social concerns. A letter submitted to the director of the International Finance Corporation (IFC), Lars Thunell, describes that IFC's lack of transparency and supervision, failure to recognize human rights, and inadequate climate change policies, undermine IFC's ability to achieve its poverty alleviation mission.

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The 2008 Food Price Crisis: Rethinking Food Security Policies, the latest in the G-24 Discussion Paper Series, is a timely report as member states of the United Nations come together 16-18 November, 2009 at the World Summit on Food Security in Rome, in an effort to find lasting solutions to world hunger. Intended to inform current policy discussions on how to address ever-growing food insecurity, the report contends that it is essential to examine the structural causes of growing food insecurity and to understand the dynamics that have propelled the food crisis.

The report authored by Anuradha Mittal, Executive Director of the Oakland Institute, explores the different factors that are affecting food security in developing nations, such as the systemic decline in investment in agricultural productivity; state’s reduced role in agricultural production and trade; indiscriminate opening of agricultural markets which has resulted in import surges and volatile food prices, and emphasis on cash crops.

The report also examines both national and international responses to the 2008 food price crisis and growing hunger, which according to latest estimates impacts over a billion people, and proposes several short-term and long-term measures to address it. However, the effective implementation of these policies, the report argues, depends on the firm application of the principle of food sovereignty, which would allow governments in developing countries to support and protect their agriculture, markets, and be in a position to fulfill their responsibility for the realization of the right to food of their citizens.

The G-24, the only formal developing-country grouping within the IMF and the World Bank, was established in 1971 to increase the analytical capacity and the negotiating strength of the developing countries in discussions and negotiations in the international financial institutions. The G-24 Discussion Paper Series are discussed among experts and policy makers at the meetings of the G-24 Technical Group, and provide inputs to the meetings of the G-24 Ministers and Deputies in their preparations for negotiations and discussions in various forums.

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The Great Land Grab: Rush for World's Farmland Threatens Food Security for the Poor, sounds the alarm on the threat that land grabbing poses to food security and livelihoods. Land grabs--the purchase of vast tracts of land from poor, developing countries by wealthier, food-insecure nations and private investors--have become a widespread phenomenon, with foreign interests seeking or securing between 37 million and 49 million acres of farmland between 2006 and the middle of 2009. While such land grabs have not gone unnoticed, much attention has focused on individual countries, such as China and Saudi Arabia, buying land in poor nations. The Great Land Grab lays bare the insidious role played by international financial institutions like the International Finance Corporation of the World Bank and Foreign Investment Advisory Service (FIAS), as well as rich nations, in promoting and facilitating this widespread land reappropriation--all in the name of promoting food security through foreign investment in agriculture.

An estimated 1.02 billion people-one sixth of humanity-suffer from chronic hunger, and, in one of the world's cruelest ironies, 70 percent of this starving population live and work on small-scale farms and in rural areas. To tackle the growing crisis of world hunger, policy makers and agriculture experts will again gather at the World Food Summit in November 2009; preparation for the summit is revolving around increased investment in agriculture. However, as The Great Land Grab points out, there is a dangerous disconnect between increasing agricultural investment through rich countries amassing land in poor countries and the goal of secure and adequate food supplies for poor and vulnerable populations.

The Great Land Grab critically examines the role of the private sector in agricultural development and exposes implications of private sector control over food resources. The report concludes that those who promote the benefits of private sector growth in agriculture fail to recognize that acquisition of crucial food-producing lands by foreign private entities poses a threat to rural economies and livelihoods, land reform agendas, and other efforts aimed at making access to food more equitable. The report concludes that the current debate surrounding the land grab phenomenon fails to adequately and rigorously examine the consequences of this trend and implores that we question the assumption that increased investment in agriculture is beneficial for all parties involved.

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Take Action: Challenge Land Grab in Orissa, India

Additional Resources on Land Grab

The Oakland Institute has produced a series of Policy Briefs and Briefing Papers to reframe the global debate around the real root causes of global food crisis and, through its advocacy and outreach activities, has ensured that real solutions find their way into on-the-ground policy.

Click here to Read our Reports on the Food Price Crisis