Increased agricultural development in Zambia will actually compromise the country’s food security as peasant farmers continue to be driven off their customary land to pave the way for large-scale local and foreign agribusiness.
Of the many issues brought to the table at the Slow Food joint Salone del Gusto and Terra Madre event this week in Turin, Italy, one of the most pressing is land-grabbing.
What should be done about land grabs, and who should do it, remains a topic of intense debate on the international stage.
The World Forum of Fisher People (WFFP) and Pakistan Fisherfolk Forum (PFF) while welcoming the report designed by Olivier De Schutter, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food, who warned of the threat of ‘ocean-grabbing’ to food security, and urged world governments and international bodies to halt the depletion of fish stocks, and take urgent steps to protect, sustain, and share the benefits of fisheries and marine environments.
Two hundred and seven families have turned to the US Government to help mediate the long-running dispute with the exclusive purchaser of the sugar, New York-based American Sugar Refining (ASR).
Land grabs are carried out today in the Rufiji River Basin through the application of both force and consent.
“We will put an end to the possibility for foreigners to acquire farmland. With this land law, it is over, it is no more,” says Hungary's Prime Minister.
Currently reserved for Hungarians, farmlands will be available for purchase by foreigners from 2014. But as this EU imposed deadline looms, PM Viktor Orbán government is doing all it can to delay it. Meanwhile small farmers are battling with wealthy candidates, often close to sources of political power, for the most attractive lots.
Today's neocolonials are no longer content monopolising the output of the lands; they want the source of the produce, too — the land itself and the accompanying water supply.
Olam is working closely with the Government of Gabon where it has developed the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil New Planting Procedure in Africa.
Argentinian Agriculture Minister Norberto Yauhar met last week with Saudi Ambassador Turki M.A. Al Madi to discuss investments that the Kingdom is considering in Argentina, particularly in San Luis.
Amid warnings that land deals are undermining food security, the head of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has compared "land grabs" in Africa to the "wild west", saying a "sheriff" is needed to restore the rule of law.
