Land control, agricultural firms and agrarian restructuration : a critical perspective of large scale land based investment projects in Mozambique
Boche, Mathieu
Despite an extensive literature, most analyses of large-scale land acquisitions are politically and ideologically anchored, reflecting strong opposing stances. On one hand, proponents of large-scale land acquisitions argue that poor countries could benefit from foreign direct investment in land, particularly through the creation of on- and off-farm jobs, technology transfer in production and processing, infrastructure development and improvement of basic services access (Deininger et al. 2011). They support the development of codes of conduct, guidelines and principles of responsible investment based on corporate social responsibility (Deininger et al. 2011) as strategies to regulate these transactions and overcome non-equitable, non-transparent and non-sustainable investments. On the other hand, opponents argue that large-scale land acquisitions are basically a contemporary revival of neo-colonialism, jeopardizing poor peasantss livelihoods. According to them, the above mentioned principles, guidelines and codes of conduct, besides being voluntary and thus not enforceable, present instruments based on ideological assumptions related to the existence of reserve agricultural landd and the accountability of the stakeholders is highly questionable (Borras et al. 2010). They criticize the depoliticized vision of partnerships and contractual arrangements and the lack of integration of the politics of land governance inherent to such measures (Zoomers 2010).
Event: Annual World Bank Conference on Land and Poverty 2015
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