This is the Final Communiqué from a regional workshop on the theme: “Towards security of tenure for farmers in large scale irrigated rice schemes in the Sahel” which was held on 2nd and 3rd June 2014 in Bamako, Mali.

In the past 50 years, Indian agriculture has undergone a major transformation, from dependence on food aid to becoming a consistent net food exporter. The gradual reforms in the agricultural sector (following the broader macro-reforms of the early 1990s) spurred some unprecedented innovations and changes in the food sector driven by private investment. These impressive achievements must now be viewed in light of the policy and investment imperatives that lie ahead.

28 May 2014

GRAIN | La Vía Campesina

For immediate release

The main objective of this study was to assess the impacts of biofuel investments in local livelihood systems and local economy in Tanzania.

La construction du barrage de Kandadji au Niger aura, entre autres, pour conséquences l’appropriation de terres de culture, propriété de détenteurs coutumiers mais dans beaucoup de cas sous-exploitations d’autres personnes non-propriétaires. L’État a proposé un bail emphytéotique d’une durée de 50 ans pour les propriétaires, en compensation de leurs droits de propriété expropriés.

The Food and Nutrition Security Policy and Action Plan constitute a national cross-sectoral strategic document of St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Its main objective is to ensure long-term food and nutrition security and the enjoyment by all in the Caribbean Community Member States of the “right to food”.The document provides for elimination of hunger, food security and malnutrition. To this end, it sets out measures concerning implementation of a Zero Hunger Initiative which will reduce the level of hunger and undernourishment in St.

Land tenure administration in Zambia suffers from serious shortcomings in governance. Too much power is vested with too few checks and balances in too few people, notably the chiefs, local councils and the Commissioner of Lands. This creates fertile ground for abuse and corruption, both of which mar the sector. Zambia still has an important distance to cover in the field of land governance and legal recognition of customary rights and institutions.

In the Karnataka state of India, the First Agro farm has more than 40 varieties of vegetables on sale, all of them free of chemical residues. Both hotels and restaurants as well as more and more retailers are appreciating the range of certified products from this young enterprise.

To ensure that there is sustainability at the community level in its land rights and governance training programme, Land Rights Research and Resources Institute (HAKIARDHI), a Tanzanian national level organization that spearheads land rights of small-scale producers, uses land rights monitors (LRMs) in its program areas. In each of the selected villages of the program districts, two LRMs (a man and a woman) who have received land rights training from HAKIARDHI are democratically elected by villagers.

The global finance, energy and food crises are fuelling a global rush for land in developing countries. In their search for land, political leaders and investors look to Africa as a potential food supplier for the rest of the world. However, the current trend of land liberalisation rarely offers a solution to sustainable food production and poverty reduction among smallhold farmers in rural areas, as shown by this case study.

The Land tenure system in Zambia is divided in the following administrative segments: colonial period

1880-1964; immediate post independence 1964-1975, post independence period of one party political

In 2003, the Maputo Declaration of the African Union stated that, within five years, 10 per cent of budgets of member states would be dedicated to agriculture. Ten years on, despite spending increases by some countries African governments still allocate an average of only 4 per cent of their national budgets to agriculture. Only eight out of 54 countries under the African Union have consistently reached the 10 per cent target.