Africa urged to help locals benefit in "land grab"

By Stephen Brown

ROME (Reuters) - African countries whose farmland is being bought by foreign investors must defend local people's rights to avoid eviction, while investors should beware being tainted as human rights abusers or "land grabbers".

International agencies' first detailed report on the trend, published on Monday, estimated that nearly 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of farmland in five sub-Saharan African countries has been bought or leased since 2004 -- an investment of $919.98 million.

"Lands that only a short time ago seemed of little outside interest are now being sought by international investors to the tune of hundreds of thousands of hectares," said the agencies, calling the huge deals reported so far "the tip of the iceberg".

The report was co-authored by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), both based in Rome, and the London-based International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).

Fears about food security and rising returns in agriculture mean the trend will continue, bringing benefits in terms of infrastructure and jobs, the agencies said, but also meaning risks for recipient countries, local people and investors.

The report focuses on large-scale deals of more than 1,000 hectares in Ethiopia, Ghana, Madagascar, Mali and Sudan, as well as case studies carried out in Mozambique and Tanzania, while warning that data on land deals is "scarce and of limited reliability".

The authors shy away from the term "land grab", used by the media to denote the trend towards large-scale farmland purchases by China and oil-rich nations like Saudi Arabia and Qatar in poor countries, which often struggle to feed themselves.

IFAD said the deals could "bring benefits for all parties and be a tool for development" if done the right way.