Extending the water connection : land acquisitions and economic development
Kyungmee Kim & Anders Jagerskog
Globally large-scale acquisitions of agricultural land have increased after the food price crisis 2007-2008. This contribution aims to provide an expanded overview of how water is positioned in the bigger scheme of land acquisitions and economic development in the host developing countries. The paper takes a broader perspective to investigate the linkages between land acquisitions, water and development. As a discussion paper, the contribution brings the resource curse theory into the land acquisition discussions and highlights the role of green water in land acquisitions that take place in developing countries, a topic that has been a neglected in the research on water and land acquisitions. This is a critical area of research as a majority of the cultivated land in sub-Saharan Africa the region where land acquisitions most frequently take place relies on rain fed agriculture (FAO 2005: 27). The paper also notes that the acceleration of virtual water trade by the large-scale land acquisitions (Allan, 2011; JJgerskog et al, 2012; Kay and Franco, 2012) is an additional important issue that should be included in the international discourse on the subject. Theorising land acquisitions and extending the water connection can widen the scope of the global research front.
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2013
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