News
Timely news and information about agricultural research in Africa. Collected from a variety of sources, we are also happy to accept your suggestions for relevant research to include.
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Land Grab and Oil Palm in Colombia
April 2, 2011 / News By Mark James This article focuses on the effects of agrofuel production in the south-western department of Nariño, Colombia, as multinational firms cultivate palm oil on territories that legally belong to indigenous and ethnic groups. The two communities primarily affected
Economic Empowerment for Pastoralist Women: A Comparative Look at Program Experience in Uganda…
April 2, 2011 / News Economic Empowerment for Pastoralist Women: A Comparative Look at Program Experience in Uganda, Somaliland and Sudan By John Livingstone & Everse Ruhindi PENHA (the Pastoral & Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa) is a regional NGO, focused on pastoral
Eating Bitter to Taste Sweet: An Ethnographic Sketch of a Chinese Agriculture Project in Senegal
April 2, 2011 / News By Lila Buckley This is a case study of Chinese agriculture interventions in Senegal. As Chinese land-based investments multiply across the African continent, I focus on a single government-run agriculture demonstration centre outside Dakar to provide insight into the daily
Farmland grabs by urban sprawl and their impacts on peasants’ livelihood in China: An overview
April 2, 2011 / News By LI Xiubin China is undergoing rapid industrialization and urbanization, which substantially increase pressure on farmland resources, environment, and peasants’ life as well. During the past two decades, some 4 million ha of farmland has been occupied by non-agricultural sectors.
Global Landgrabs, Agribusiness and the Commercial Smallholder: A West African perspective
April 2, 2011 / News By Kojo Sebastian Amanor In the last few years there has been a growing concern with investment in large-scale estate agriculture, particularly within Africa, and its impact on eroding land rights and livelihoods of smallholders. This tends to regard investment
The Modern Motility of Pastoral Land Rights: Tenure Transitions and Land-Grabbing In East Africa
April 2, 2011 / News By John G. Galaty Paper The major challenges to pastoralism are not the demands of modernity, which most pastoralists are fully willing to embrace, nor the cultural lure of education – since the educated pastoralist is not an oxymoron but
Biofuels and Wasteland Grabbing: How India’s Biofuel Policy is Facilitating Land Grabs in Tamil Nadu
April 2, 2011 / News By Jennifer Baka Unlike the large scale, biofuels-induced land grabs occurring in Africa(Cotula et al. 2009; Sulle and Nelson 2009; World Bank 2010), the land grabstaking place in India involve smaller tracts of land and are more subtle and obscured.
Agrarian change below the radar screen: Rising farmland acquisitions by domestic investors in West..
April 2, 2011 / News Agrarian change below the radar screen: Rising farmland acquisitions by domestic investors in West Africa Results from a survey in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger By Thea Hilhorst, Joost Nelen, Nata Traoré In West Africa, domestic investors acquire plots of
Processes of Large-Scale Land Acquisition by Investors:Case Studies from Sub-Saharan Africa
April 2, 2011 / News By Laura German, George Schoneveld and Esther Mwangi Rapid growth of emerging economies, emerging interest in biofuels as an alternative to fossil fuels and recent volatility in commodity prices have led to a marked increase in the pace and scale
Gujarat’s Gain and Bengal’s Loss? ‘‘Development,’ – Land Acquisition in India and the Tata Nano…
April 2, 2011 / News Gujarat’s Gain and Bengal’s Loss? ‘‘Development,’ – Land Acquisition in India and the Tata Nano Project: A Comparison of Singur with Sanand By Devparna Roy It is necessary to understand the political economy and recent political history of West Bengal
‘Land belongs to the community’: Demystifying the ‘global land grab’ in Southern Sudan
April 2, 2011 / News A working paper by David K. Deng Sudan is among the global ‘hotspots’ for large-scale land acquisitions. Although most of this investment activity was thought to be focused in the Northern part of the country, recent research indicates that a
The ‘bitter fruit’ of a new agrarian model: Large-scale land deals and local livelihoods in Rwanda
April 1, 2011 / News By An Ansoms Abstract: In a context of globalisation and liberalisation, Africa is increasingly confronted with the commercialisation of its space. Various so-called large-scale actors – international private investors, ‘investor’ states, and local entrepreneurs – search for large quantities of
What shall we do without our land? Land Grabs and Resistance in Rural
April 1, 2011 / News Alison Elizabeth Schneider Political dynamics of the global land grab are exemplified in Cambodia, where at least 27 forced evictions took place in 2009, affecting 23,000 people. Evictions of the rural poor are legitimized by the assumption that non-private land
The Modern Motility of Pastoral Land Rights: Tenure Transitions and Land-Grabbing in East Africa
March 31, 2011 / News John G. Galaty Mcgill University Introduction: The major challenges to pastoralism are not the demands of modernity, which most pastoralists are fully willing to embrace, nor the cultural lure of education – since the educated pastoralist is not an
Climate Change in Sub-Saharan Africa: consequences and implications
March 31, 2011 / News P. Ericksen, J. de Leeuw, P. Thornton, A. Ayantunde, M. Said, M. Herrero and A. Notenbaert International Livestock Research Institute, Nairobi, Kenya and Bamako, Mali Introduction Managing climate variability and climate risk is at the heart of pastoralism. Both traditional
MIND THE GAP – Commercialization, Livelihoods and Wealth Disparity
March 22, 2011 / News MIND THE GAP – Commercialization, Livelihoods and Wealth Disparityin Pastoralist Areas of Ethiopia By Yacob Aklilu and Andy Catley
Livestock Exports from the Horn of Africa
March 22, 2011 / News An Analysis of Benefits by Pastoralist Wealth Group and Policy Implications By Yacob Aklilu and Andy Catley Feinstein International Center, Tufts University
Moving Up or Moving Out?
March 22, 2011 / News A Rapid Livelihoods and Conflict Analysis in Mieso-Mulu Woreda, Shinile Zone, Somali Region, Ethiopia By Andy Catley and Alula Iyasu
An Essay on The Future of Pastoralist Conflict
March 18, 2011 / News By Paul Goldsmith Conflict is a form of disorder intrinsic to developmental processes. The impacts of violent conflict on economy and governance represent both a set of costs and specific indicators of serious problems on different levels of the system.
Seeking Alternative Livelihoods in Northern Kenya: Costs and Benefits in Health and Nutrition
March 18, 2011 / News By Elliot Fratkin, Martha Nathan, and Eric A. Roth The seeking of alternative livelihoods by former pastoralists is not a new phenomenon in East Africa, as many nomadic livestock keeping people have historically utilized ties with foraging, farming and more
Certification dispositifs and land conflicts: the case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil…
March 18, 2011 / News Certification dispositifs and land conflicts: the case of the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) By Laura Silva Castañeda The expansion of oil palm plantations in Indonesia, the largest producer of palm oil in the world, has generated a huge
The Urban and Northern Face of Global Land Grabs
March 18, 2011 / News By Eric Holt-Giménez, Yi Wang and Annie Shattuck Introduction: Detroit, Michigan, the former Paris of the Midwest, is ground zero of the U.S. recession. Detroit is also a flashpoint for the northern food justice movement. There are over 300 community
Negotiating Carbon Concessions in Developing Countries: Issues of Capacity, Confidentiality …
March 18, 2011 / News Negotiating Carbon Concessions in Developing Countries: Issues of Capacity, Confidentiality & Corruption By Kyla Tienhaara and Wynet Smith Introduction: In 2008, John Vidal wrote an article in the Guardian newspaper entitled ‘The great green land grab’, in which he discussed the
Land grabbing and share of the value added in agricultural processes. A new look at the distribution
March 18, 2011 / News Land grabbing and share of the value added in agricultural processes. A new look at the distribution of land revenues By H. Cochet and M. Merlet This article discusses one aspect of the land grabbing phenomenon that has been little
PORTUGUESE – Agrarian structure, foreign land ownership, and land price in Brazil
March 18, 2011 / News Agrarian structure, foreign land ownership, and land price in Brazil (Dinâmica fundiária e apropriação de terra por estrangeiros no Brasil) By Sérgio Sauer and Sergio Pereira Leite The recent world “rush for farmland” has made Latin America, in general, and Brazil
“How come that others are selling our land?” – Customary Land Rights, Rural Livelihoods and Foreign.
March 18, 2011 / News “How come that others are selling our land?” – Customary Land Rights, Rural Livelihoods and Foreign Land Acquisition in the Case of a UK-based Forestry Company in Tanzania By Martina Locher Reports on transnational land acquisitions raise concerns about local
The Land Question: Special Economic Zones and the Political Economy of Dispossession in India
March 18, 2011 / News By Michael Levien The conflict between farmers and industry over land has become the greatest contradiction for capitalism in India today. Special Economic Zones (SEZs) have become the epicenters of “land wars,” as farmers across the country have resisted the state?s
The Gender Implications of Large-Scale Land Deals
March 18, 2011 / News By Julia Behrman, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, and Agnes Quisumbing This paper strives to introduce a discussion of the gender dimensions into the growing debate on large-scale land deals. It addresses the current information gap on the differential gender effects of large-scale
A Land Grab Scenario for Indonesia? Diverse Trajectories and Virtual Land Grabs in the Outer Islands
March 18, 2011 / News By John McCarthy, Suraya Afiff and Jacqueline Vel In August 2010 Indonesia‘s ministry of agriculture launched a giant project to create a $5 billion agricultural estate spanning three districts in the province of Papua in response to perceptions of a
Foreign investment into agriculture: Investment Treaties and the ability of governments to balance..
March 18, 2011 / News Foreign investment into agriculture: Investment Treaties and the ability of governments to balance rights and obligations between foreign investors and local communities. By Mahnaz Malik A number of countries are offering large tracts of farmland to foreign investors as demand
Household Livelihoods and Increasing Foreign Investment Pressure in Ethiopia’s Natural Forests
March 18, 2011 / News By Kathleen Guillozet and John C. Bliss Foreign investment in Ethiopia?s forestry sector is currently limited, but agricultural investments that affect forests, largely through forest clearing, are commonplace. We describe the nature of forest investments and outline the challenges and
Range Enclosures in Southern Oromia, Ethiopia: An innovative response or erosion in the common…
March 18, 2011 / News Range Enclosures in Southern Oromia, Ethiopia: An innovative response or erosion in the common property resource tenure? By Bokutache Dida Rangeland enclosures and related issues of property rights in African grazing lands have received research attention since the 1980s (e.g.
Taming the Jungle, Saving the Maya Forest: The Military’s Role in Guatemalan Conservation
March 17, 2011 / News By Megan Ybarra This article examines the significance of the role of the military in conservation in Guatemala through an analysis of discourses about the lowlands over time. Historically, Guatemala’s national imaginary of the lowlands has been that of a
The Space to Be Ourselves’: Ethanol-Fuel Production and Land Conflict on a Brazilian ‘Frontier’
March 17, 2011 / News By Shandra P. Sullivan Since the early 20th century, national and international movements in capital and ideas have contributed to the radical transformation of the Brazilian countryside. In Mato Grosso do Sul, the Kaiowá-Guarani have been gradually crowded onto reservations
The Dynamics of Land Deals in the Tana Delta, Kenya
March 17, 2011 / News Abdirizak Arale Nunow The Tana delta is within the Tana Delta District that was curved out in 2007 from the larger Tana River District in Coast province. The district headquarters is situated in Garsen and the delta is a common
‘Responsible Companies’ and African Livestock-Keepers:
March 17, 2011 / News By John Morton There is some evidence that companies, both multinational and African, operating from motivations that can be very broadly labelled “Corporate Social Responsibility”, can make real and significant contributions to pastoral development and that useful development dialogues can
Economic Empowerment for Pastoralist Women: A Comparative Look at Program Experience in Uganda…
March 17, 2011 / News Economic Empowerment for Pastoralist Women: A Comparative Look at Program Experience in Uganda, Somaliland and Sudan By John Livingstone & Everse Ruhindi PENHA (the Pastoral & Environmental Network in the Horn of Africa) is a regional NGO, focused on pastoral development,
Mobile pastoralism and land grabbing in Sudan: Impacts and Responses
March 17, 2011 / News By Mustafa Babiker The central drylands of Sudan have been the home to various forms of mobile pastoralism for centuries. Pastoral mobility is an ecological necessity dictated by the extreme temporal and spatial variability of rainfall in these areas. However,
Shipping out the “desert ship”: camel marketing in the northern Kenya/southern Ethiopia Borderlands
March 17, 2011 / News By Hussein Abdullahi Mahmoud This study examines the newly emerging and vibrant camel marketing processes in northern Kenya/southern Ethiopia borderlands. This trade has become an attractive economic activity only in the past few years. Pastoralist innovation is key to risk mitigation
Mobility and the Sustainability of the Pastoral Production system in Africa: Perspectives …
March 17, 2011 / News Mobility and the Sustainability of the Pastoral Production system in Africa: Perspectives of Contrasting Paradigms Gufu Oba This paper explores the extent to which changes in pastoral herd mobility and impacts on the environment may be explained by four paradigms:
Being and Staying Pastoralists: In Search of a Livelihood Security for Maasai Displacement
March 15, 2011 / News By Opportuna Kweka Pastoralism economy has diversified due to loss of their livestock. However, this is taken as a positive change by conservationist and developmentalists who for many years have viewed Maasai as conservative, resistant to change and their pastoral economy
The Future of Pastoralism in the Sahel Zone of West Africa: Climate Change: Impacts & Consequencies
March 15, 2011 / News The Future of Pastoralism in the Sahel Zone of West Africa: Climate Change: Impacts & Consequencies on Pastoralism By Mohammed Ibrahim Bare This paper seeks to examine the challenges of climate change on pastoralism, considering its far-reaching impact and consequences.
Pastoral women’s thoughts on ‘change’: voices from Ethiopia
March 15, 2011 / News By Fiona Flintan? with contributions from Beth Cullenn and Shauna Latosky ‘Change’ in pastoral areas and societies is occurring at an unprecedented pace. Pastoral women and men experience such change in different ways, and have different capacities to transform it
Reaching Pastoralists with Formal Education A Distance-Learning Strategy for Kenya
March 15, 2011 / News By David Siele, Jeremy Swift, Saverio Krätli Demand for education among pastoralists, including children actively involved in production, is rapidly increasing. Education is seen by impoverished households as a way out of poverty, and by the households actively involved in
Town Camels: Pastoral Innovation in a fast Changing World
March 15, 2011 / News Town Camels: Pastoral Innovation in a fast Changing World Case Study from Gode Town, Somali Regional State, Ethiopia By Abdi Abdullahi Hussien, Seid Mohamed Ali, and Abdurehman Eid Tahir Because of demographic, socio-economic and political factors, Ethiopian pastoralists are settling
Dispossession, semi-proletarianization, and enclosure: primitive accumulation and the land grab …
March 15, 2011 / News Dispossession, semi-proletarianization, and enclosure: primitive accumulation and the land grab in Laos By Miles Kenney-Lazar Introduction: In April 2008, the Vietnamese corporation Hoàng Anh Gia Lai Joint (HAGL) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Government of Laos (GoL) agreeing to