Large-Scale Farm Deals Endanger Local Control, World Bank Says

By Sandrine Rastello

Sept. 8 (Bloomberg) -- Foreign purchases of agricultural land from Mozambique to Cambodia pose “significant risks” to the livelihoods of farmers in countries with “weak land governance,” the World Bank said in a report.

Large-scale purchases raise “a real concern about the ability of local institutions to protect vulnerable groups from losing land on which they have legitimate, if not formally recognized claims,” according to the report by the Bank’s Agriculture and Rural Development department.

“The veil of secrecy that often surrounds these land deals must be lifted so poor people don’t ultimately pay the heavy price of losing their land,” World Bank Managing Director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a former Nigerian finance and foreign minister, said in a statement. The acquisitions “can come at a high cost,” he said.

Rising prices of rice, corn and palm oil in 2008 triggered deadly unrest in some parts of the developing world. The report, Rising Global Interest in Farmland, said that over the next year farmland investment spiraled, with 10 times more property bought in developing countries by nations seeking food security.

Nations dependent on food imports, such as Saudi Arabia and South Korea, stepped up efforts to buy land and lock-in overseas resources to ensure food security, the bank said. Foreign investment in Sudanese agricultural land in 2009 was estimated to increase five-fold by 2014, according to a Sudan Investment Ministry estimate last year.

Environmental Impact

Investor deals also have an environmental impact in countries such as Brazil, where deforestation was pursued to enable farmland expansion, the report said. The report reviewed data from 14 countries in Africa, Latin America, Europe and Asia between 2004 and 2009.

“The question will be what will the bank be able to do to change these dynamics,” said Vince McElhinny, who is a project manager for The Bank Information Center, a nonprofit in Washington, D.C. that advocates for transparency and public accountability within the World Bank. “In practice what we’re seeing is a trend that suggests that it will be able to do very little.”

Foreign agricultural investments have sometimes met with resistance. Protests by local communities in Madagascar caused that country to abandon a $6-billion farming agreement last year with Daewoo Logistics Corp.

Governments were “unprepared” for the increase in such land deals after the food and fuel crisis, the report said.

The report noted that private investors had the potential to increase productivity in less-developed countries with technological help. “In many cases, however, the desired benefits were not achieved,” the report said. The World Bank is trying to develop voluntary principles for responsible agricultural investment, it said.

-- Editors: Christine Spolar, Christopher Wellisz

To contact the reporter on this story: Sandrine Rastello in Washington at srastello@bloomberg.net;

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Christopher Wellisz at cwellisz@bloomberg.net;

Farmers Watch as Tonle Sap Authority Crushes Reservoirs

Pich Samnang, VOA Khmer
Kampong Thom, Cambodia Thursday, 05 August 2010

The machines had come to tear down more than 10 reservoirs local farmers had built to capture the receding waters of the swollen Tonle Sap lake.

“I was very disappointed with the destruction of my reservoir.”

One morning in early July, about a dozen bulldozers and excavators came to Msa Krong commune where Kong Heuv lives, about 50 kilometers outside Kampong Thom provincial town.

The machines had come to tear down more than 10 reservoirs local farmers had built to capture the receding waters of the swollen Tonel Sap lake.

“I was very disappointed with the destruction of my reservoir,” said the 67-year-old farmer, as he walked along the flattened dam one recent day.

“If I were rich, this would not be a problem,” he told VOA Khmer. “But I am still in debt due to the construction of the reservoir.”

The government has been tearing down these kinds of reservoirs since late June, under the new Tonle Sap Authority, which has a mandate to protect the flooded forests around the great lake.

There are about 1 million hectares of these forests around the lake; nearly 400,000 hectares have been destroyed already. Since 2002, villagers have been expanding their farmlands, while business owners have looked for other means to catch fish as the water recedes each year.

Kong Heuv said he spent about $5,500 two years ago to keep water for his rice paddies during the dry season.

“I don’t know how to deal with my debt now that I can’t work on the paddies I depend on,” he said.

Chan Yuttha, secretary general of the Tonle Sap Authority, said 35 of 239 reservoirs have now been destroyed across six provinces.

“And there will be no compensation for any loss of the reservoirs, because they were all built illegally,” he said.

Tri Horn, chief of Msa Krong commune, said the destruction of the reservoirs is good for the sustainability of the flooded forests. But, he acknowledged that the dismantling some of the small ones owned by poor farmers in his commune has caused problems for them.

“They borrowed the money from banks to build those reservoirs, so they are now in debt,” he said in an interview at this house. “Some almost want to commit suicide due to the debt.”

Most of the 9,000 people in his commune depend on farming, while a smaller number need the reservoirs for dry-season fishing, he said.

“In addition to keeping water for farming, the building of reservoirs is also meant to catch fish,” said Lim Kean Hor, Minister of Water Resources and head of the Tonle Sap Authority.

The reservoirs are especially problematic in Kampong Thom province, where they are built consecutively and impede the flow of the river, he said.

“So, all of the remaining reservoirs around the great lake will be dismantled to preserve the lake,” he said.

More photos of rural life in Cambodia

Cambodian farmers plant corn at their plantation field near Mekong river bank in Kandal province, outskirts of Phnom Penh April 8, 2008. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
A Cambodian farmer works on her land near Mekong river bank in Kandal province, outskirts of Phnom Penh April 8, 2008. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
A Cambodian farmer sprays insecticide on vegetables in a field near Mekong river bank in Kandal province, outskirts of Phnom Penh April 8, 2008. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea
A Cambodian farmer sprays insecticide on vegetables in a field near Mekong river bank in Kandal province, outskirts of Phnom Penh April 8, 2008. REUTERS/Chor Sokunthea

Like swords into plowshares

Thanks to Lutheran support for clearing land mines in Thmey, Kampong Speu Province, Cambodia, Khan Trang (right) and her husband, Yoy Yon (left), safely grow vegetables to sell at market and feed their five children.

February 2008
Story by Chham Rivann and Margaret F. Sadler
The Lutheran (USA)

In Cambodia, Lutherans help replace land mines with vegetables, fruits

Morm Saveurn, 46, his wife, Mou Ly Viseth, and their six children live in Kam Prong, a remote village in northwest Cambodia’s Battambang Province. Saveurn and Viseth (both former soldiers) left the capital, Phnom Penh, and returned home a little more than 10 years ago. Saveurn still works part time as a soldier (10 days a month) but also depends on farming for the family’s income.

Home is the site of a former battlefield, where Khmer Rouge troops fought those of the Vietnamese and Cambodian governments. Battambang is the most heavily mined province in Cambodia. From January 2004 to August 2005 alone, Battambang recorded 458 casualties from undetected land mines. Current estimates place 4 million to 6 million land mines and unexploded ordnance (UXO) scattered across Cambodia—threats to lives, limbs and economic recovery. Since hostilities ceased in 1997, some 40,000 people have lost limbs to mines in Cambodia.

A Lutheran World Federation partner, the U.K.-based Mines Advisory Group, is one of the country’s main
de-mining operators. The group has spent the last five years clearing nearly 4 million square yards of land in Battambang. In the first half of 2007, the Cambodia Mine/UXO Victim Information System reported 232 victims—a 28 percent decrease from the same period in 2006.

Since 1979 the LWF Department for World Service has worked in Cambodia, taking an approach to sustainable development that empowers vulnerable groups such as poor farmers, female-headed households, landless families, returnees, internally displaced people, rural youth and people affected by HIV/AIDS in remote and isolated areas.

Farmers risk death, maiming

Like Saveurn, 85 percent of Cambodia’s 13.9 million people depend on subsistence farming. Undetected land mines threaten their survival. “All of us in this village do not feel safe,” he said. “When I came here for the first time I found mines. As a soldier, I knew what they were.”

So far Saveurn’s family has been lucky. “Over the last few years eight people in the village have had land mine accidents, with seven of them becoming amputees because of their injuries,” he said.

De-mining is a consultative process between villagers and mine-clearance partners. After village proposals for land clearance have been accepted, the Department for World Service selects and trains community members to help clear the mines, said Mey Sarun, the agency’s project manager in Battambang. The work can involve clearing brush, using various detection devices and detonating smaller explosives.

During the work, LWF staff help build the confidence and capacity of mine-affected households and communities, empowering people to exercise their civil rights. Staff also help residents plan and carry out projects that address issues such as food security, education and 
HIV/AIDS.

In Kam Prong alone, Mines Advisory Group, with funding from FinnChurchAid through the LWF, cleared 70,272 square yards of land from April to June 2007, freeing it for resettlement and making it safe for 29 families comprising 142 people. From January 2003 to mid-2007, the mine clearance work of the LWF and MAG in
 Battambang had benefited 8,380 families consisting of around 41,900 men, women and children.

Fruits and vegetables

Saveurn hopes workers will soon be able to clear additional mines from his land. “My plan is to grow some fruits,” he said. “I plant soya beans from July to October and other beans from January to April. I also grow cabbages, cucumbers, chilies and eggplants. But I still really worry about mines on the rest of the land, which [has yet] to be cleared.”

To the community-based work of groups like LWF and Mines Advisory Group, he would like “to say thank you. After the [land] has been cleared it is safe to cultivate. Then we can plant some fruits and vegetables without the fear of land mines that could kill or injure us.”

Saveurn’s wife, Viseth, said clearing the mines makes a world of difference for the children too. “They are so happy now—they know that some of our land is safe for them to play on. ... It makes me happy to see that they are happier.”