Wealthy countries seek land in Cambodia, Madagascar, and Brazil
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Wealthy countries seek land in Cambodia, Madagascar, and Brazil.
By David Montero | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
from the December 22, 2008 edition
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - The farm fields of this country once fed the
legendary civilization of Angkor, the world's largest empire in the
9th century. Tomorrow they may feed the megacities of the United Arab
Emirates, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Reeling from food prices that have doubled on average from a year ago,
several Gulf countries are pursuing land deals worth billions of
dollars in Cambodia, according to recent statements by Cambodia's
government. Those countries would lease land, grow rice and corn, and
then ship it home – potentially saving millions by bypassing world
markets.
The race for farmland in Cambodia underscores how countries desperate
to boost farming amid an ongoing food crisis are turning to global
outsourcing, hoping to grow their own food on land abroad. Japan has
bought up plots in Brazil, South Korea large tracts in Madagascar, in
a trend poised to change global land ownership and agricultural
production.
While it may bring succor to countries squeezed by high prices, it may
also incite conflict and poverty, some experts warn. In August,
Jacques Diouf, director-general of the UN's Food and Agricultural
Organization, warned against creating a kind of food "neocolonialism,"
with rich countries securing food supplies at the expense of poor
farmers.
From his office in Dubai, Mohammed Raouf can see the global food
crisis closing in on the Gulf states. Growing food at home is not
viable – in Saudi Arabia, Mr. Raouf points out, farmers have tried for
15 years, unsuccessfully, to grow wheat in the desert.
As a result, Gulf nations must import about 80 percent of staple
foods. And the price of those imports has ballooned from $16 billion
in 2006 to $20 billion in 2007, according to the Arab Organization for
Agricultural Development.
Land acquisitions abroad are the only viable response, Raouf and
others say. "For the Gulf countries ... under current technology, it
is impossible to guarantee their food security internally, because
they lack water resources and arable lands," Raouf, program manager of
environment research at the Gulf Research Center, a Dubai think tank,
writes in an e-mail. "So this [is] the best policy option now to
follow…"
In recent months, Cambodia has positioned itself as a solution: of 6
million hectares (about 15 million acres) available for cultivation,
only 2.5 million are currently used, the government says. It's been
wooing the Gulf, hosting delegations of Arab leaders, and hopes to
finalize concessions worth up to $3 billion with Kuwait and Qatar. As
Prime Minister Hun Sen said in a recent radio address, "Those
countries have oil but no rice. I think the Gulf can become our rice
market."
The marriage of rich countries seeking land and poor countries seeking
cash has accelerated since 2007, goaded by troubling statistics: as
populations rise globally by 1 to 2 percent, agricultural production
is not keeping pace. Investment has slumped, and farmland is
disappearing as nations transform countrysides into urban centers.
The result has been a quiet but dramatic redrawing of the world's land
ownership. China may have a lot of land mass, but much of the arable
land it has is rapidly being turned over to industrial use, and tens
of millions of its former farmers have moved to the cities for work.
So it now is negotiating deals to buy more than 2 million hectares of
land in countries as far flung as Mexico, Tanzania, and Australia. The
United Arab Emirates is seeking some 800,000 hectares in Pakistan
alone, while Saudi Arabia is negotiating for 1.6 million hectares in
Indonesia, according to statistics compiled by Grain, an environmental
organization based in Spain.
Such deals may look good on paper, bringing cash and possibly
technology transfers. But many in Cambodia – as elsewhere – are
concerned. They worry that poor countries could undercut their ability
to feed themselves by selling land, especially in times of food
crisis.
"We still need to develop our agricultural technology on our own
land,," says Meas Nee, country director of Village Focus
International, a nongovernmental organization that focuses on farmers'
livelihoods. "If this kind of investment is not carefully planned, all
the investment will be done at the expense of the rural poor and
farmers."
Another concern is that land may be unfairly taken away from farmers.
Cambodia is already reeling from extensive land disputes, and local
newspapers daily report on cases of poor farmers being kicked off
their land. In many cases, local police and government officials are
said to be responsible, making way for private businesses to set up
agricultural projects.
No one knows for certain how many people have been dispossessed in
recent years, but it is estimated to be in the tens of thousands,
according to several local and international human rights
organizations, including Amnesty International.
In Laos, farmers are accusing Chinese of kicking them off their land.
When it was announced that Egypt hoped to buy 840,000 acres of land in
Uganda, a public uproar ensued, resulting in the Ugandan government
denying the transaction. It remains unclear if that deal will go
through.
"The land deal could trigger a conflict over land and also raise other
political issues. We could see a reversal of our socioeconomic
progress," says Arthur Bainomugisha, director of research at ACODE, a
think tank headquartered in Kampala, Uganda.
Here in Cambodia, critics worry that land deals could be made without
local consultation and could result in more people being kicked off
their land.
Cambodian farmers would still be able to work on the land that foreign
countries buy, but critics worry that companies would not be able to
provide as many jobs as they might potentially take away. "The
companies can make jobs, but in our observation, they cannot make the
jobs enough," says Thun Saray, the executive direction of Adhoc, a
local human rights organization.
"If the government permits land sales to foreign countries, where will
Cambodians who need land go? How can they survive?"
