The Global Land Squeeze: Managing the Growing Competition for Land

1. Introduction-Competition for the world’s finite land resources is rapidly intensifying. Around 85% of the world’s usable land—ice-free and non-desert—has already been heavily harvested for wood or converted to agriculture. This conversion has contributed roughly a quarter of the carbon that humanity has added to the atmosphere and explains most of the planet’s vast loss of biodiversity. The world faces a global land squeeze as the world population grows to 10 billion by 2050. Human demands for food, wood products, and urban uses will expand as the population grows and incomes rise. These demands will lead to more conversion of native habitats to agricultural and urban uses; in addition, more natural forests will be converted to wood plantations and increasing amounts of wood will be harvested from relatively natural forests. This growing demand for land based products will compete with the ability of the remaining native habitats to store carbon and support biodiversity. The growing demand for land-based products, such as food and wood, presents a great environmental challenge. Land-use change is continuing apace. Although estimates vary, according to Global Forest Watch data, people are likely responsible for the gross loss of roughly 15 Mha of forest cover per year since 2000.

Shalmali Guttal, IPES-Food expert, India, said: “We’re seeing soaring land prices, land grabs and out-of-control carbon schemes driving an unprecedented ‘land squeeze’. In this era of economic turmoil huge swathes of land are being snapped up like there’s no tomorrow by governments, corporations, and speculators. Land prices have doubled globally since 2008. Farmers, peasants, and Indigenous communities are being squeezed from all sides – losing their land, livelihoods, ancestral and cultural roots, and undermining their ability to produce food sustainably. They need to have real agency to shape land governance.”

·         In India the top 10% own 45% of farmland

  • 4 farmers every day take their lives in India due to the strain land squeeze causes
  • In Asia, India is a hotspot for land degradation, with more than 70% of its arable land undergoing one or more forms of land degradation
  • India’s internal biodiversity-based offsetting scheme has been found to be failing to halt deforestation, while incentivizing land concentration and forced land acquisitions
  • India is on the forefront of land loss due to rising urbanisation and mega-infrastructure developments – with 2.3 million hectares estimated to have been lost to urban growth between 1955-2000, and steady on going losses to this day.
  • In India, land acquisition per landowner has been capped since 1972 at 10 to 54 ha (or slightly higher in hills and deserts), depending on the state and land quality. However, this is now in the process of being dismantled.
  • In Africa and Asia, large swathes of land are being appropriated through ‘special economic zones’ and ‘growth corridors’, in the context of expanding bilateral trade and investment agreements (including South-South deals).

2. Key Impacts of Land Squeeze:-

i)                    Loss of access and control of farmers and rural communities- It includes displacement, migration, Threatened Food insecurity, weakened Bargaining power, Exacerbated Rural Poverty.

ii)                  Environmental Degradation- It includes Unsustainable practices, Loss of Biodiversity, Increase climate change Impact, and loss of vegetation.

iii)                Social unrest and Conflicts- it Includes competition of resources, overexploitation, overuse or misuse, instability and outmigration.

3. India’s Initiatives to Tackle the Issue of Land Squeeze and Food Insecurity:-

i)        Land Management and Utilisation:

·         National Land Records Modernization Programme (NLRMP)

·         Formation & Promotion of 10,000 FPOs

ii)      Improving Productivity and Reducing Food Wastage:

·         National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013

·         Mission for Integrated Development of Horticulture (MIDH)

·         Pradhan Mantri Gareeb Kalyan Anna Yojana (PMGKAY)

iii)    Programs for Land and Soil Conservation:

·         Soil Health Card Scheme

·         Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana (PMKSY).

·         National Mission on Sustainable Agriculture (NMSA)

 

4. Way forward:-

It is need of the hour to building integrated land, environmental, and food systems governance to halt green grabs and ensure a just and human rights-based transition. In practice, this means putting land rights at the core of policy approaches to tackle global crises like climate change and food insecurity. Strengthening land tenure of local communities is both an important way to ensure sustainable livelihoods and to increase control of land at local levels. For actors as companies this could support government policies that aim to do this and seeking to source from agricultural and energy providers that put the rights of small-scale landowners at the heart of their business. The LAND SQUUEZE report by FAO and associated institutes recommends that it is required to move from “commodity to community” means that, restoring the market for land to its fundamental purpose rather than treating it as a tradable, fungible asset for profit. Paying fair prices for land and for commodities, providing financial support to smallholder farmers to increase productivity and access to markets, and ensuring that farmers earn a living income can all strengthen the position of small-scale landowners. In this continuation, Companies purchasing agro-commodities have a crucial role to play by paying fair prices, incentivising sustainable small-scale farming practices, and ensuring that farmers and workers are earning a living income and living wages.

5. Conclusion: - The land squeeze is a complex issue demanding a multifaceted solution. By addressing the underlying causes and supporting small-scale food producers, we can ensure equitable access to land, protect our environment, and build a more sustainable food system for the future. It’s time decision-makers stop shirking their responsibility and start to tackle rural decline. Instead of opening the floodgates to speculative capital, governments need to take concrete steps to halt bogus ‘green grabs’ and invest in rural development, sustainable farming and community-led conservation.

 

References

https://www.wri.org/research/global-land-squeeze-managing-growing-competition-land.

https://www.fao.org/family-farming/detail/en/c/1682215/

https://files.wri.org/d8/s3fs-public/2023-07/the-global-land-squeeze report.pdf?VersionId=edANDGIvq_NhCGbDVfte6diBdJswo7e9.

https://currenthunt.com/en/2024/05/land-squeeze/

https://www.wearehumanlevel.com/content-hub/addressing-the-land-squeeze

https://www.wearehumanlevel.com/content-hub/addressing-the-land-squeeze

https://ndcpartnership.org/knowledge-portal/climate-toolbox/how-manage-global-land-squeeze-produce-protect-reduce-restore