Large-scale land acquisitions can have lasting repercussions for the future of agriculture, including both agribusiness and family farming. Rather than rushing into land deals, governments and investors should properly consider the wider range of options to invest in agriculture. In many parts of the world, family farmers have proved efficient and dynamic. Working with them can generate healthy returns, avoid the risks associated with land acquisitions, and improve farmers’ livelihoods.

Documents the history of evictions of rural dwellers based on a comprehensive survey of people displaced from South African farms between 1984-2004. Content includes methodology and objectives of the study, the scale of evictions, perspectives from commercial farmers, the impact of evictions on the livelihoods of farm dwellers, local impact, aspirations of evictees, possible interventions.

A historical analysis of the current land invasion crisis, examining the chequered past of the white farmers. Contrasts the present situation with the eviction without compensation by whites of Chief Tangwenya and his followers. Examines the different interpretations by the British and Zimbabwean Governments of the agreement over land reached at Lancaster House in 1979. Argues that the present media coverage lacks historical perspective and is doing the country a disservice. There are more questions needing to be asked about Britain’s role

Land Rush is a one hour documentary film shot in Mali exploring the huge expansion of international agribusiness on Africa’s most fertile arable land. In Mali, 75% of the country’s population are farmers but only 5% of the land is arable. The film follows an American, Mima Nedelcovych, seeking to develop a sugar plantation, Sosumar, some Malian farmers who support the scheme, and others who oppose it, seeing it as a manifestation of imperialism.

Mentions new food security programme, transfer of state land, land tenure, land reform grant, new approach, commonage, agricultural redistribution grants, integrated rural development planning. Will facilitate transfer of tribal land to tribes and communities. Extended deadline for labour tenant claims to March 2001. Previous overemphasis on market forces failed to produce desired effect and impact. Lifted last August’s moratorium on new land reform projects. Piloting a supply led system.

Globalisation impacts on local land markets and land-use, land transaction costs affect food prices, and the combined effect is particularly damaging to women who produce food and put food on the table for their families. Article examines what is attracting investors and market speculators into the farm and land sectors; what is at stake for small farmers – especially women farmers – and long-term impacts for food production and food security; and what action is needed to enable women to secure access to natural resource and land assets for current and future generations?

Includes the legal and policy situation relating to women’s land rights in Southern Africa; women farmers speak out on which land rights are being enjoyed, or not; potential springboards to the realisation of women’s land rights; baseline trends and key conclusions; recommended action points.

Based on 2002 fieldwork in four rural communities in Manica Province. Divided into 5 sections: overview – main points; case studies and methodology; effects of the 1997 Land Law in rural communities; problems encountered during implementation; recommendations; conclusion. Includes suspicion of the legal system, effects of legal knowledge, greater awareness of rights, class inequalities, conflicts between political parties, corruption and ignorance of local officials, attitudes to investors.

Reports from meeting near Bilbao from peasants in South Africa, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Niger, Mali, Senegal and Ghana. Almost everywhere in Africa the elite and corporations are undertaking efforts to capture and control people’s basic means of production, such as land, mineral resources, seeds and water. These resources are increasingly being privatized due to the myriad of investment agreements and policies driven by new institutional approaches, imposed on the continent by western powers and Bretton Woods institutions.

Land tenure administration in Zambia suffers from serious shortcomings in governance. Too much power is vested with too few checks and balances in too few people, notably the chiefs, local councils and the Commissioner of Lands. This creates fertile ground for abuse and corruption, both of which mar the sector. Zambia still has an important distance to cover in the field of land governance and legal recognition of customary rights and institutions.

Looking at several large-scale land deals in Mozambique, Tanzania and Zambia, this documentary film highlights the nuanced impacts of these investments. Small-scale farmers and producers, national government officials, and African policy-makers unpack the deals, showing that there are winners and losers when providing investors access to large tracts of land in Africa. For example, land deals impact differently on women and youth, and altering land regimes also impacts on access to other natural resources such as water, fish, and local indigenous vegetables.

Investigates the processes and impact of commercialisation of land in Malawi – specifically the acquisition of huge tracts of communal lands by foreign companies and local elites for sugarcane production in Nkhotakota and Chikwawa districts. The main finding was that ‘land grabbing’ for large-scale commercial agriculture in these two districts negatively affected the livelihoods of the poor communal farmers. The costs to the affected communities outweighed the benefits