State and Perspectives of Agricultural Land Acquisitions
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Abstract
Despite being marginal in both general and scientific public, land acquisitions have brought agricultural land in the unprecedented focus of interest. The causes of these changes are the consequence of, inter alia, the growing world population, which undeniably leads to the increased need for agricultural products. Therefore, in this article the most relevant cause of agricultural land acquisitions is considered – growing food demand. The history suggests that the acquisitions of agricultural lands are not a new phenomenon, but rather a new wave of déjà vu. However, what differentiates this wave of acquisitions from previous ones are, inter alia, its causes. The latest wave of agricultural land acquisitions, according to the general understanding, started with the global financial crisis. In these circumstances, the growing demand for land acquisition began, which led developing countries to realize that the purchase of agricultural land, despite its potentially negative effects, could serve as a catalyst for economic development. We drew the conclusion that more than a third of all the cross-border land acquisitions were caused by the growing food demand. The results of the research show that the growth of land acquisitions follows the growth of world population, implying that the demand for agricultural land will not be stagnant for at least three more decades. In other words, land acquisitions undeniably are in continuo. This implies the need that foreign direct investment policies in agriculture, are defined in a way which would maximise the benefits and minimise any potential drawbacks.
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References
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Zoomers, Annelies. 2010. "Globalisation and the foreignisation of space: seven processes driving the current global land grab." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(2): 429-447.
Anseeuw, Ward, Mathieu Boche, Thomas Breu, Markus Giger, Jann Lay, Peter Messerli, and Kerstin Nolte. 2012a. "Transnational Land Deals for Agriculture in the Global South: Analytical Report based on the Land Matrix Database."
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Antonelli, Marta, Giuseppina Siciliano, Margherita Emma Turvani, and Maria Cristina Rulli. 2015. "Global investments in agricultural land and the role of the EU: Drivers, scope and potential impacts." Land Use Policy, 47: 98-111.
Budak, Ana. 2021. "Liberalizacija tržišta poljoprivrednog zemljišta u okviru pristupanja Republike Srbije Evropskoj uniji." PhD. diss. University of Belgrade.
Ethiopia: Are “Land Grab” Deals a Path to Food Security? 2020. GlobalVoices. https://globalvoices.org/2011/05/18/ethiopia-are-land-grab-deals-a-path-to-food-security/ (accessed April 10, 2020).
Borras Jr, Saturnino M., Jennifer C. Franco, Ryan S. Isakson, Les Levidow, and Pietje Vervest. 2016. "The rise of flex crops and commodities: implications for research." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 43(1): 93-115.
Borras Jr, Saturnino M., Elyse N. Mills, Philip Seufert, Stephan Backes, Daniel Fyfe, Roman Herre, and Laura Michéle. 2019. "Transnational land investment web: land grabs, TNCs, and the challenge of global governance." Globalizations: 1-21.
Borras, Saturnino M., Jennifer C. Franco, Sergio Gómez, Cristóbal Kay, and Max Spoor. 2012. "Land grabbing in Latin America and the Caribbean." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4): 845-872.
Borras, Saturnino M., Jennifer C. Franco, and Chunyu Wang. 2013. "The Challenge of Global Governance of Land Grabbing: Changing International Agricultural Context and Competing Political Views and Strategies." Globalizations, 10(1): 161-179.
Campanale, Mark. 2013. "Private investment in agriculture." In Handbook of Land and Water Grabs in Africa: Foreign Direct Investment and Food and Water Security, Eds. Allan, Tony, Martin Keulertz, Suvi Sojamo, and Jeroen Warner (Vol. 25, pp. 358-386). London and New York: Routledge.
Cotula, Lorenzo. 2013. "The international political economy of the global land rush: A critical appraisal of trends, scale, geography and drivers." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4): 649-680.
De Schutter, Olivier. 2008. "Building resilience: a human rights framework for world food and nutrition security, A/HRC/9/23, 8 September 2008." Geneva: https://www.refworld.org/docid/48cf71dd2.html.
De Schutter, Olivier. 2011. "How not to think of land-grabbing: three critiques of large-scale investments in farmland." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 38(2): 249-279.
Deininger, Klaus, and Derek Byerlee. 2011. Rising global interest in farmland: can it yield sustainable and equitable benefits? Washington, D.C.: The World Bank.
Deutsche Bank Group. 2009. "Investing in Agriculture: Far-Reaching Challenge, Significant Opportunity An Asset Management Perspective." https://www.db.com/us/docs/Ag_whitepaper_062409.pdf.
Faure, Alexandre. 2015. "Public international law controversies over land acquisition and lang grabbing: a socio-legal perspective." 1-9.
Fernández, Luis Tomás Montilla. 2017. Large-Scale Land Investments in Least Developed Countries: Legal Conflicts Between Investment and Human Rights Protection. Cham: Springer.
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. 2011. "The State of Food Insecurity in the World: How does international price volatility affect domestic economies and food security?". Rome: http://www.fao.org/3/i2330e/i2330e.pdf.
Foreign land purchases for agriculture: what impact on sustainable development. 2020. United Nations. https://sustainabledevelopment.un.org/content/documents/no8.pdf (accessed March 7, 2020).
Friis, Cecilie, and Anette Reenberg. 2010. "Land grab in Africa: Emerging land system drivers in a teleconnected world, GLP Report No. 1, GLP - A Joint Research Agenda of IGBP and IHDP." Copenhagen: https://www.farmlandgrab.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/GLP_report_01.pdf.
Genoud, Christelle. 2018. "Flex crops neverland: finding access to large-scale land investments?" Globalizations, 15(5): 685-701.
Gerlach, Ann-Christin, and Pascal Liu. 2010. "Resource-seeking foreign direct investment in African agriculture." FAO Commodity and Trade Policy Research Working Paper No. 31. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.
Godfray, H. Charles J., John R. Beddington, Ian R. Crute, Lawrence Haddad, David Lawrence, James F. Muir, . . . Camilla Toulmin. 2010. "Food Security: The Challenge of Feeding 9 Billion People." Science, 327(5967): 812-818.
GRAIN. 2008. "SEIZED! The 2008 land grab for food and financial security." Barcelona: https://www.grain.org/article/entries/93-seized-the-2008-landgrab-for-food-and-financial-.
GRAIN. 2016. "The global farmland grab in 2016: how big, how bad?". Barcelona: https://www.grain.org/article/entries/5492-the-global-farmland-grab-in-2016-how-big-how-bad.
Hall, Ruth. 2011. "Land grabbing in Southern Africa: the many faces of the investor rush." Review of African Political Economy, 38(128): 193-214.
Keča, Ranko. 1993. Zemljišno pravo i pravni režim poljoprivrednog zemljišta. Novi Sad: Centar za izdavačku delatnost Pravnog fakulteta u Novom Sadu.
New Regulation On Selling Agricultural Properties in Poland. 2021. Interlegal. https://www.interlegal.net/new-regulation-on-selling-agricultural-properties-in-poland/ (accessed March 7, 2021).
Kuhn, Lena, and Ihtiyor Bobojonov. Forthcoming. "The role of risk rationing in rural credit demand and uptake: lessons from Kyrgyzstan." Agricultural Finance Review.
Global Observatory. 2020a. Land Matrix Initiative. https://landmatrix.org/global/ (accessed July 27, 2020).
Land Matrix public database on land deals. 2020b. Land Matrix Initiative. https://landmatrix.org/ (accessed March 25, 2020).
Mehta, Lyla, Gert Jan Veldwisch, and Jennifer Franco. 2012. "Introduction to the Special Issue: Water grabbing? Focus on the (re)appropriation of finite water resources." Water Alternatives, 5(2): 193-207.
Mfaniseni Wiseman, Mbatha, and Masuku Mfundo Mandla. 2018. "Small-Scale Agriculture as a Panacea in Enhancing South African Rural Economies." Journal of Economics and Behavioral Studies, 10(6): 33-41.
Nolte, Kerstin, Wystke Chamberlain, and Markus Giger. 2016. "International Land Deals for Agriculture: Fresh insights from the Land Matrix, Analytical Report II." Montpellier/Hamburg/Pretoria: https://landmatrix.org/publications/.
Ojulu, Ojot Miru. 2013. "Large-scale land acquisitions and minorities/indigenous peoples’ rights under ethnic federalism in Ethiopia." PhD diss. Bradford University.
Fewer restrictions on the acquisition of agricultural land. 2021. Dla Piper. https://www.dlapiper.com/en/us/insights/publications/2019/07/real-estate-gazette-35/fewer-restrictions-on-the-acquisition-of-agricultural-land/ (accessed March 7, 2021).
Pretty, Jules. 2008. "Agricultural sustainability: concepts, principles and evidence." Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences, 363(1491): 447-465.
Rulli, Maria Cristina, and Paolo D'Odorico. 2013. "The science of evidence: the value of global studies on land rush." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(5): 907-909.
Rulli, Maria Cristina, Antonio Saviori, and Paolo D’Odorico. 2013. "Global land and water grabbing." Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(3): 892-897.
Scoones, Ian, Ruth Hall, Saturnino M. Borras, Ben White, and Wendy Wolford. 2013. "The politics of evidence: methodologies for understanding the global land rush." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 40(3): 469-483.
Sharma, Sachin Kumar, Teesta Lahiri, Suvayan Neogi, and Raihan Akhter. 2021. "Revisiting domestic support to agriculture at the WTO: Ensuring a level playing field." The Journal of International Trade & Economic Development: 1-17.
Spieldoch, Alexandra, and Sophia Murphy. 2009. "Agricultural Land Acquisitions: Implications for Food Security and Poverty Alleviation." In Land grab? The race for the world’s farmland, Eds. Kugelman, Michael and Susan L. Levenstein (pp. 39-54). Washington, D.C.: Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars.
Woertz, Eckart. 2013. "The Governance of Gulf Agro-Investments." Globalizations, 10(1): 87-104.
Woodhouse, Philip. 2012. "New investment, old challenges. Land deals and the water constraint in African agriculture." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 39(3-4): 777-794.
Zoomers, Annelies. 2010. "Globalisation and the foreignisation of space: seven processes driving the current global land grab." The Journal of Peasant Studies, 37(2): 429-447.