Land-Grabbing: to what extent is it hydro-colonial practice?

Blog 3: Land-Grabbing: to what extent is it hydro-colonial practice?

With much of the land of the African continent remaining underutilised and marginalised, coupled with its associated water resources and rapidly growing domestic food markets, risk-taking investors have been keen to invest in these lands. And, of course, where there is investment you expect to see return. But exactly who is benefiting? And at whose expense? As identified in Blog 3, Sub-Saharan Africa is expected to be most affected by population growth and food insecurity - therefore exactly how land is being used, and if for agricultural purposes, will have huge consequences for the futures of these people.

Firstly, it is important to mark clear the link between land grabbing and water grabbing. Indeed, much of the literature is clear to identify that land grabbing – which is defined by Oxfam (2016) as “when governments, banks or private investors buy up huge plots of land to make equally huge profits” - is often more about the associated water than it is about the land, with the deals often a means of gaining access to freshwater resources (Rulli et al., 2012). Indeed, it is important to note that the land need not necessarily be bought, but can simply be leased and still constitute a ‘land grab’ – signifying that it is itself a contested term.

Land Matrix presents a database on the land acquisitions, including those intended, attempted and/or failed, since 2000. Though their data is sometimes speculative, its findings paint a general picture that Africa is and remains the most targeted land acquired area to date, and that these ‘hotspots’ correlate to where water is (e.g. the Nile). This is reflected in figure 1.

So you are saying that food is the motivation for land grab?

Put bluntly, yes. Agricultural potential and irrigation in Africa serves as a key reason behind these land grabs – indeed this is itself driven by economic prosperity and food security.

However, Box 1 also illustrates some of the economic drivers, as well as the ramifications, for land grabbing.

So, how does hydro-colonialism come into it?

Well, much of the literature is beginning to notice that land grabbing has come at the expense of the ‘rural poor’, who face large-scale displacement without proper compensation (Environmental Justice Organisations, Liabilities and Trade, 2014).  Furthermore, it has been described by some foreign companies and governments as a ‘neo-colonial push’ to annex key natural resources.

Leah (2009) contends that ‘rich countries are buying poor countries’ soil fertility and water to ship food and fuel back home, in a kind of neo-colonial dynamic’. A significant majority of these investments are thought to be for production of food crops for foreign markets (World Bank 2010); and 1/3 to be for plantations of crops for biofuels (ibid). Essentially, in many instances then, there exists an inextricable link between land, water and food. And beyond these as commodities – they are intricately linked to being functions of the economy. The deals“typically involve the leasing or other concessions (rather than sale) of large areas of land usually for production for foreign markets, by foreign companies and governments concerned with hedging against the risks of food price increases on global markets”(Cotula and Vermeulen, 2009).

What we see then is that the economies of developing countries in Africa are being poorly served by global trading systems (Allan et al., REF) in a perpetuating and negative way. Allan (REF) notes how two centuries of OECD-farmer relations with international private-sector food supply chains together with additional intense farmer engagement with legislators in Europe and the USA have contributed very significanctly to the progressive fall in world food commodity prices. And a number of private sector TNCs based in these OECD countries, Unilever, Coca-Cola and the popularly known ABCD – referring to ADM (US), Bunge (US), Cargill (US) and Dreyfus (French) (Sojamo 2010), have monopolised these transactions as they control the relevant assets, technologies and knowledge of hedging, banking and the risks.

Indeed, the negative consequences are heavily felt by the African farmers themselves. Consequently, they are never able to gain from the tendency of local crop commodity prices to increase – particularly hampering when there is local drought. As higher prices are not present in the local market, Sub-Saharan farmers are never able to invest (ibid). This is reflected in the decades after 1950, where crop productivity and returns to water in emerging and OECD economies saw a five-fold increase – whilst crop and livestock productivity fell or stayed level in Africa (REF).  Indeed, it must be stressed the immediate effects such as lack of tenure (which is also a cause) and reduced access to resources such as firewood and timber are also misfortunes that the smallholder farmers endure. The ramifications in case-study specific scenarios are illustrated in a table in my next blog.

Clearly, what can be concluded with confidence is that land grabbing is a concerning phenomenon bound and shrouded by ambiguous, inconsistent and worrying rationale- that should rightly be challenged. To answer the question I set myself bluntly then, I think yes, it is a hydro-colonial practice. It both seeks to perpetuate the monopolisation of both resources and markets that TNCs in OECD countries enjoy, and in turn, hinder the capacity for small-hold farmers to gain access to such resources and markets. This blog has also (unintentionally) pointed to the importance of food in increasing water demand and motivating stakeholders towards water abundant land – I’d love to hear your thoughts about this fact in the comments.

References:

IPS (2016) http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=46724

https://newint.org/blog/majority/2009/01/21/the-really-ugly-face-of-capitalism/

Dixon, J et al., (2001) Framework for analysing impacts of globalisation on smallholders (WWW) FAO (fao.org; 17/10/16)

Grain, (2012) Squeezing Africa Dry: Behind every land grab is a water grab, (WWW), Grain, (grain.org; 16/10/16).

Nolte, K, Chamberlain, W, Giger, M (2016) International Land Deals for Agriculture. Fresh insights from the Land Matrix: Analytical Report II, Montpellier: Bern Open Publishing.

Oxfam (2016) Guide to land grabs, (WWW) Oxfam (Oxfam.org.uk; 17/10/16)