Wow! eBook
The Great African Land Grab?: Agricultural Investments and the Global Food System
Author(s): Lorenzo Cotula (Author)
- Publisher: Zed Books
- Publication Date: 11 July 2013
- Edition: 1st
- Language: English
- Print length: 248 pages
- ISBN-10: 1780323107
- ISBN-13: 9781780323107
Book Description
Dubbed ‘land grabs’ in the media, large-scale land acquisitions have become one of the most talked about and contentious topics amongst those studying, working in or writing about Africa. Some commentators have welcomed this trend as a bearer of new livelihood opportunities. Others have countered by pointing to negative social impacts, including loss of local land rights, threats to local food security and the risk that large-scale investments may marginalize family farming.
Lorenzo Cotula, a leading expert in the field, casts a critical eye over the most reliable evidence on this hotly contested topic, examining the implications of land deals in Africa both for its people and for world agriculture and food security.
Editorial Reviews
Review
Probably nobody knows better than Coltula what the word grab” means in terms of land grabs. He has read the contracts, seen the disgraceful and fraudulent terms they often include, and knows from personal investigation what that means for the rural Africans whose land has been taken. This is an eye-opener for all enthusiasts of foreign investment in Africa.” –Fred Pearce, author of The Landgrabbers
A timely and very useful summary of the recent development of land grabbing in Africa. Cotula combines this with insightful reflections on the internal and external factors within the global economy and mainstream policy circles that have contributed to the rise of land grabbing. –Kojo Sebastian Amanor, associate professor at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, Legon, and author of Land and Sustainable Development in Africa
