Thread by @KA_Nicholas

Large-scale land acquisitions (foreign interests buy/lease land) often claim to support #foodsecurity.

But our study in @WorldDevJournal w/ @A_Mechiche & @Jiyagbi found deals are likely to benefit food security in only 7 African countries. 1/n🧵
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Food security = available + access + utilisation + stability (@FAOKnowledge). We developed indicators of each for African countries in our study; found food insecurity across Africa decreased since 2000 (good!), but only 3 countries were relatively food secure in 2017 (bad) 2/n

Instead of providing food security, we found the best lands are allocated to flex crops; food is produced only on marginal lands. 83% of land deals are located where they risk increasing land pressure, conflicts, or deforestation. 3/n

A big problem: 14 countries we studied with low food availability or self-sufficiency host land deals that are targeting export markets, rather than growing food local people could eat. We deem these inappropriate land acquisitions (dark brown in the map). 4/n

We analysed who's investing in land deals in African countries, & for what purpose. Most are foreign, private interests, mostly from agriculture but also finance. We conclude they're likely to support elites rather than food security, and thus follow a neo-extractivist logic. 5/n

"Current LSLAs are not appropriate to serve food security in the continent." Land deals should prioritise social-ecological benefits, including the varied dimensions of food security, especially to local and marginalised communities. Avoid displacing forests + local people. 6/n

@GeorgeMonbiot thank you for shining a light on global land grabbing! Thought you might be interested in our study-- includes the first analysis of who's investing where and why in Africa. Please see this thread 👆 and sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

Study👆"Land acquisitions unlikely to help food security in Africa"@waiterich @CGIARclimate @IPBES @EATforum @timgbenton @ProfTimLang @ArielBrunner @SIANIAgri @GlobalLF @bcampbell_agcli @CGIAR @oxfutureoffood @OxfamEAfrica @WRIFood @FoodSecurity_SU @DaniNierenberg @thinink @IFPRI