Global land grabs creating security and political problems [-Shhtttt! Don't tell that Hun Xen, let him learn the hard way!]

Villagers in Kampong Speu fight back against the cops who came to evict them from their lands (Photo: The Phnom Penh Post)

It's become known as the global land grab. More and more wealthy countries are buying up agricultural land in the developing world in at attempt to hedge against high food prices. Ben Shepherd from Sydney University's Centre for Security Studies says these land deals are driven by countries sourcing food security by directly purchasing agricultural land, but it's creating both political and security issues in host countries.

September 13, 2011 13:37:00

Bronwyn Herbert

ABC News (Australia)

ELEANOR HALL: It's become known as the "global land grab".

More and more wealthy countries are buying up agricultural land in the developing world in an attempt to hedge against high food prices.

According to the World Bank, food prices jumped by almost 30 per cent last year and contributed to riots and protests across the Middle East, South America and Asia.

Ben Shepherd from Sydney University's Centre for Security Studies is researching the phenomenon and told Bronwyn Herbert that these land deals are creating a new kind of security and political problem.

BEN SHEPHERD: The deals themselves are usually made by corporations and investment funds but the investing countries like China and the Arabian Gulf states are providing support and policy frameworks that are encouraging these commercial enterprises activities.

So if there are bad outcomes in the way that these corporations are behaving, if those policy frameworks can be adjusted to encourage better behaviour by those corporations, there's a hope for better outcomes on the ground.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Are there examples of bad behaviour on the ground?

BEN SHEPHERD: I've just spent two and a half months in field work in Cambodia which is a really interesting situation. As well as the policy frameworks on the investor side, the Cambodian government has its own policy frameworks which are encouraging foreign investment in agricultural land.

And one of the unfortunate side effects of the way that those policies are working is that corporations are getting granted land in Cambodia and the net result is forcible evictions of the people that have been living on and relying on that land.

And when these people are evicted they're left without any source of income and frequently without sources of food or subsistence.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Well where are they going to, what can they do?

BEN SHEPHERD: Well in some cases they are fighting back. So there are pockets of political violence erupting in parts of Cambodia as a result of these things and that can't be good for anyone, that can't be good for the investors because it, you know, it doesn't create a stable, long term investment environment.

In other cases the communities are so weak they are just forced off their land and literally rotting on hillsides with no land and no food.

BRONWYN HERBERT: What's driving these so-called land grabs?

BEN SHEPHERD: Well the countries like the Arabian Gulf states understandably have difficulties growing their own food. They have, in the cases of Qatar and Kuwait, they are very small countries, Saudi Arabia is a big country but it is mostly desert.

They have relatively large and wealthy populations but it's difficult to have sustainable agriculture in those environments. So they need alternative sources of food and until 2007/08 it was easy for them to just buy the food on the global market but in the food price crisis in 2007/08, when some major exporters such as India which is a major supplier of rice to the Gulf states put export bans on its rice because of its own domestic needs, this left the Arabian Gulf states with difficulties sourcing food.

So after that they started thinking, well we need some alternative strategies. So investing in developing country agriculture which has a tendency to be underdeveloped and low productivity, is potentially a very good thing if you can increase the productivity of developing country agriculture then there's more supply to go around and more in the market for countries like the Arabian Gulf states to purchase.

BRONWYN HERBERT: Is it a significant percentage of farm land in Cambodia or even in Ethiopia where you're about to travel to that is actually being bought out by foreign countries?

BEN SHEPHERD: In Cambodia the problem is quite extensive. There's what they call economic land concessions over large, many large areas of land in Cambodia. Not all of those are to foreign states seeking food security though, some are just from speculative enterprises seeking to make a profit.

In Ethiopia I am yet to see with my own eyes the full extent of the problem but Ethiopia is reportedly giving away very large tracts of land to foreign investors, in the hundreds of thousands of hectares.

BRONWYN HERBERT: And why is that?

BEN SHEPHERD: There is a flow of investment funds into the country and if the government sees that that's good for them then they'll do the deal.

I believe it is possible that these investments do have good effects by increasing local productivity and what have you. My experience in Cambodia didn't really show that but I'm going to Ethiopia with an open mind.

ELEANOR HALL: That's Ben Shepherd from the Centre for International Security Studies at Sydney University, speaking to Bronwyn Herbert.