About

AFGROLAND analyses how global agro-food-energy system changes impact on the countries in the global South, namely in Africa, particularly with regard to sustainable land management, agricultural production and food security, socio-economic outcomes (such as employment and livelihoods), pressure on land and natural resources and, subsequently, the governance of the latter.

The objectives of AFGROLAND are to: 

• Identify the drivers of change within the global agro-food-energy systems, how they impact on, and in return are shaped by governance changes at the regional, national and local levels.
• Better qualify the rush for land, by assessing and defining the different production and land-based investment models being developed. Quantify and analyse these changes in terms of land and natural resource use and governance (land, water and soil) and assess the effects on sustainable soil ecosystem service provision; Evaluate how such changes impact on food security (with a focus on the large enterprises and smallholders) and/or on food access (employment creation, sustainable livelihoods) at the local/national level.
• Ensure cooperation across the key disciplines involved, as well as proactive dissemination strategies and a continuous exchange with stakeholders in the policy, civil society and business communities.

Results

Earlier global narratives of Large Agricultural Investments (LAI) as land grab vs. development opportunities are in stark contrast with the diversity of LAI impacts described in local case studies. It is not well understood how LAIs generate diverse impacts on the sustainability of development in different contexts.

The project resulted in  a cross-country comparative analysis of how differences in business models, land use changes and governance systems explain differences in socio-economic, food security and environmental impacts of LAIs in Kenya, Madagascar and Mozambique. The results show that the socio-economic, food security and environmental impacts fall into four patterns with distinct impact profiles. The results indicate that commercial agriculture can be a component in sustainable development strategies under certain conditions, but that these strategies will fail without substantial and sustained increases in the productivity, profitability and inclusiveness of smallholder agriculture, agro-ecological land management and support to broader patterns of endogenous agrarian transformation.