The Political Economy of Large-Scale Land Acquisitions: Water Security and Food Sovereignty

Abstract

Increasing concerns about scarcity of water resources and arable land have incentivised investor groups from capital-rich, resource-poor countries to engage in large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) in resource-rich, capital-poor countries. A web of facilitating factors such as international investment and trade policies, national development strategies of investor and target countries, local traditional governance mechanisms and differential endowments with natural, financial and technological resources enabled such land deals. However, contrary to realizing ‘win-win-potential’, LSLAs have been heavily criticised for exacerbating existing stresses to local water and food systems in target countries. The attempt to devise more inclusive and rights-based governance of LSLAs requires a precise understanding of the nexus between LSLAs, water and food systems with particular attention to the political, cultural and institutional aspects that shape power relations within and across governance levels. However, the exact nature and multi-level interaction of factors that facilitate specific types of LSLAs as well as the exact mechanisms through which LSLAs impact local food and water systems in target countries remain unclear. This panel contributes to this debate by disentangling the nexus between LSLAs, water security and food sovereignty. Based on case study research in Peru, Ghana and India the paper presentations provide empirical evidence and theoretical grounding for mechanisms that incentivise and facilitate LSLAs and translate their impacts on local food sovereignty and food systems. The panel focuses on the following questions: (1) How are South-South LSLAs rooted in the political, institutional and natural resource conditions of investor countries? How is an “outsourcing” of domestic food production and relocation of natural resource scarcity facilitated? (2) Which proximate and underlying causes account for adverse impacts of LSLAs on local food sovereignty in target countries? Which relevance do national and local governance options in target countries assume for the food sovereignty impacts of LSLAs?