Deutsche Welle | 3 July 2011

It's widely predicted that, by 2050, the population of the world will reach 9 billion and the need for food will increase by 70 percent. Small farmers are the backbone of worldwide food production. But their existence is endangered because their governments are leasing large tracts of land to foreign companies. Land is cheap in Africa, so companies are snapping it up. Throughout the continent, an estimated 20 million hectares have been leased to foreign companies in the last 2 years. Critics call this "land grabbing", because the land is taken from smallholders and the harvests are exported, rather than feeding local residents.