FAO | 17 November 2011
Hot topic session: Opportunities and Risks of Large Scale Investments in Land and Irrigation Schemes
Session Conveners
* Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
* The International Land Coalition (ILC)
* Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Abstract
The food price crisis in 2008 triggered a rush of large-scale domestic and foreign investment that involved the acquisition of legal rights to land. Such deals often include explicit or implicit guarantees on the right to abstract water from river systems or aquifers, often overriding claims by other users, and can therefore have a negative impact on water and food security. Yet, investments are badly needed in agriculture in developing countries, and these investments thus could also present an opportunity to improve local food security. The session will focus on ways and means to make large-scale land lease and acquisitions work for food security and discuss related issues of transparency and accountability, corruption, governance and land and water rights. It will review the water implications of these acquisitions and draft recommendations on how water should be anchored within the land grab debate.
Programme
Facilitator
* Tanja Pickardt, Project Leader, Sector Project Land Policy and Land Management, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany
Speakers
* Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director, Oxfam International
* Agusdin Pulungan, President, WAMTI (Indonesian Farmers and Fisherfolk Society), Indonesia
* Stefan Schmitz, Head of Division, Ländliche Entwicklung und Welternährung, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany
* Babette Wehrmann, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
* Dennis Wichelns, Deputy Director General, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
Hot topic session: Opportunities and Risks of Large Scale Investments in Land and Irrigation Schemes
Session Conveners
* Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
* The International Land Coalition (ILC)
* Deutsche Gesellschaft für internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH
Abstract
The food price crisis in 2008 triggered a rush of large-scale domestic and foreign investment that involved the acquisition of legal rights to land. Such deals often include explicit or implicit guarantees on the right to abstract water from river systems or aquifers, often overriding claims by other users, and can therefore have a negative impact on water and food security. Yet, investments are badly needed in agriculture in developing countries, and these investments thus could also present an opportunity to improve local food security. The session will focus on ways and means to make large-scale land lease and acquisitions work for food security and discuss related issues of transparency and accountability, corruption, governance and land and water rights. It will review the water implications of these acquisitions and draft recommendations on how water should be anchored within the land grab debate.
Programme
Facilitator
* Tanja Pickardt, Project Leader, Sector Project Land Policy and Land Management, Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, Germany
Speakers
* Jeremy Hobbs, Executive Director, Oxfam International
* Agusdin Pulungan, President, WAMTI (Indonesian Farmers and Fisherfolk Society), Indonesia
* Stefan Schmitz, Head of Division, Ländliche Entwicklung und Welternährung, Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Germany
* Babette Wehrmann, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO)
* Dennis Wichelns, Deputy Director General, International Water Management Institute (IWMI)
Session Papers
Presentations