Addressing the “land squeeze”

Our key takeaway: The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems perfectly sums up the essential connection between land and human rights: “Land is the very basis of the lives, livelihoods, identities, and food security of millions of people.” However, in recent years a “land squeeze”—driven by the “financialisation” of land and large-scale land acquisition for agribusiness, development projects, resource extraction and renewable energy projects—has been turning the screws on land access and availability for the people who rely on it most. This has had ripple effects on the livelihoods of smallholder farmers who rely on land access for subsistence and livelihoods, and has implications for global food security, nature degradation and climate change. The report urges governments to take immediate action to bolster the land rights and access for marginalised groups like Indigenous Peoples, pastoralists and other land-dependent communities. But companies and investors play a crucial role and have a choice between further entrenching land inequality or driving change. To support government efforts, the private sector can advocate for policies that secure smallholder land tenure. Companies can also source from agricultural and energy providers that put the rights of small-scale landowners at the heart of their business, and conduct adequate due diligence to avoid large-scale land acquisition and investments that would undermine local communities’ access to land. In addition, they can ensure the right to free, prior and informed consent in land-related investments. Agribusiness and food and beverage companies can pay fair prices, incentivise sustainable small-scale farming practices, and ensure that farmers and workers are earning a living income and living wages.

The International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES FOOD) published Land Squeeze: What is Driving Unprecedented Pressures on Farmland and What Can Be Done to Achieve Equitable Access to Land? (May 2024):

• Four factors driving the “land squeeze”: Four factors are both increasing pressure on land availability and “exacerbating land inequality around the world.” First, there is a “land grab 2.0” underway: land ownership is being transferred to international financial actors, away from local farmers and small landowners, in part to respond to increased pressure on governments to deregulate land markets, adopt investment-friendly policies, and expand bilateral trade and investment agreements. At the same time, “water grabs” and “resource grabs”—deals that focus on accessing natural resources for commercial exploitation—are spiking. Second, governments around the world are committing large land areas for carbon and biodiversity offset markets, reducing availability for crop production and smallholder farming activities. Land is also being accumulated by investors for production of biofuels and renewable energy projects like solar fields and wind farms. Third, agricultural land is widely being repurposed for extractive industries and large-scale development projects like infrastructure. The loss of farmland to these projects can spur food insecurity, income insecurity and conflict among local communities reliant on those lands. Fourth, the food system is changing due to “rampant agri-food sector consolidation, the ongoing spread of industrial agriculture, and concomitant diet shifts.” Smallholder farmers are increasingly brought into large-scale agribusiness through contract schemes, and in other cases they are priced out by high input costs, “spiraling land prices” and “boom-bust cycles” that characterise industrial food systems.
  

• The impacts of land loss: The report finds that the “land squeeze” is negatively impacting access and control of land for farmers, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples and other marginalised groups by “critically undermining small-scale food producers’ livelihoods, and pushing them towards a dangerous tipping point – posing grave threats to food security.” The authors identify several trends that are poised to worsen these impacts. For one, concentration of land ownership is rapidly increasing: “1% of the world’s largest farms now operate 70% of the world’s farmland,” especially in North America, Latin America and Europe—resulting in less available land for smallholders. At the same time, land degradation caused by extractives projects, industrial-scale agriculture and the effects of climate change is affecting around 80% of global arable lands, “trapping more than 1.3 billion food producers on unproductive land.” As  land investment is becoming increasingly attractive and profitable, especially for investors and large-scale agribusiness, land is being transformed “into a truly liquid, fungible asset, and accelerating the transfer of land ownership from farmers to financial actors.” These pressures create a “vicious cycle”: “the emerging land squeeze is exacerbating persistent rural poverty and livelihood pressures on small-scale food producers, creating vulnerability to various forms of land appropriation, and paving the way for further land concentration, fragmentation, and degradation.”
  

• Reinforcing land rights as the pathway forward: The report highlights a number of recommendations targeted towards governments and policymakers, but there are many ways in which the private sector can play a symbiotic role to protect land rights and access for vulnerable populations. The report recommends building “integrated land, environmental, and food systems governance to halt green grabs and ensure a just and human rights-based transition.” In practice, this means putting land rights at the core of policy approaches to tackle global crises like climate change and food insecurity. Strengthening land tenure of local communities is both an important way to ensure sustainable livelihoods and to increase control of land at local levels. For companies, this could mean supporting government policies that aim to do this and seeking to source from agricultural and energy providers that put the rights of small-scale landowners at the heart of their business. The report also recommends moving from “commodity to community”—that is, restoring the market for land to its fundamental purpose rather than treating it as a tradable, fungible asset for profit. This can include “crack[ing] down on abusive carbon offsets” that contribute to the financialisation of land. For both companies and financial actors, this could mean conducting adequate due diligence to avoid large-scale land acquisition and investments that would undermine local communities’ access to land. Ensuring the right to free, prior and informed consent in land-related investments is fundamental to this. The report also recommends that actors create “a new social contract” for farmers and land-dependent communities. For example, paying fair prices for land and for commodities, providing financial support to smallholder farmers to increase productivity and access to markets, and ensuring that farmers earn a living income can all strengthen the position of small-scale landowners. Companies purchasing agro-commodities have a crucial role to play by paying fair prices, incentivising sustainable small-scale farming practices, and ensuring that farmers and workers are earning a living income and living wages.