Zed Books The Global Land Grab: Beyond the Hype

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. The Global Land GrabBeyond the HypeBy Mayke Kaag, Annelies ZoomersZed Books LtdCopyright © 2014 Mayke Kaag and Annelies ZoomersAll rights reserved.ISBN: 978-1-78032-895-9ContentsFigures, tables and boxes, Introduction: the global land grab hype – and why it is important to move beyond Mayke Kaag and Annelies Zoomers, Africa, 1 Modernizing the periphery: citizenship and Ethiopia's new agricultural investment policies George Schoneveld and Maru Shete, 2 Large-scale land acquisitions in Tanzania: a critical analysis of practices and dynamics Jumanne Abdallah, Linda Engström, Kjell Havnevik and Lennart Salomonsson, 3 Kenya and the 'global land grab': a view from below Jacqueline M. Klopp and Odenda Lumumba Latin America, Latin America, 4 The rapid expansion of genetically modified soy production into the Chaco region of Argentina Lucia Goldfarb and Annelies Zoomers, 5 Transnational land investment in Costa Rica: tracing residential tourism and its implications for development Femke van Noorloos, 6 Water grabbing in the Andean region: illustrative cases from Peru and Ecuador Rutgerd Boelens, Antonio Gaybor and Jan Hendriks Asia, Asia, 7 Land governance and oil palm development: examples from Riau Province, Indonesia Ari Susanti and Suseno Budidarsono, 8 Vietnam in the debate on land grabbing: conversion of agricultural land for urban expansion and hydropower development Pham Huu Ty, Nguyen Quang Phuc and Guus van Westen, 9 'Land grabbing' in Cambodia: land rights in a post-conflict setting Michelle McLinden Nuijen, Men Prachvuthy and Guus van Westen, 10 Beyond the Gulf State investment hype: the case of Indonesia and the Philippines Gerben Nooteboom and Laurens Bakker, 11 Tracing the dragon's footsteps: a deconstruction of the discourse on China's foreign land investments Peter Ho and Irna Hofman, 12 Conclusion: beyond the global land grab hype – ways forward in research and action Annelies Zoomers and Mayke Kaag, Notes, About the contributors, Bibliography, Index, CHAPTER 1Modernizing the periphery: citizenship and Ethiopia's new agricultural investment policiesGeorge Schoneveld and Maru SheteIntroductionAs a country endowed with vast reserves of fertile agricultural land and water resources, Ethiopia has become one of the top five destinations for commercial agriculture investment in sub-Saharan Africa (Schoneveld 2011). In the period 2007–09, during the height of the food and energy price crises, more than 1.6 million hectares of land were allocated for large-scale commercial agricultural investments – equivalent to almost two-thirds of land allocated for this purpose over the preceding two decades. The vast majority of these investments are located in just three of Ethiopia's nine regions, namely Benshangul Gumuz, Gambella and Southern Nations, Nationalities and People's Region (SNNPR). These are all so-called 'lowlands', a low-altitude periphery that surrounds the highland plateau, which is the economic and political heartland of Ethiopia.In contrast to the highlands, where more intensive, mixed forms of agricultural production prevail, lowland production systems typically involve agro-pastoralist livelihood systems, characterized by opportunistic flood-retreat agriculture and seasonal cattle migrations (Bishaw 2001; Tolera and Abebe 2007). Owing to the high spatial and temporal variability in rainfall distribution in the lowlands, these areas are particularly susceptible to drought and, therefore, food insecurity (Pantuliano and Wekesa 2008). Agricultural production is thus concentrated in the highlands, which, covering only 45 per cent of Ethiopia's land area, support more than 90 per cent of its population (Zeleke 2003).This has created a distinctive geographical divide in Ethiopia: between an ethnically homogenous highland population comparatively well articulated to markets and the public administration, and a considerably more autonomous, albeit highly economi