OpenCommunityContracts.org is a repository of publicly available community-investor or community-government contracts and agreements relating to agriculture, forestry, mining, oil and gas extraction and other natural resource projects. It features plain language summaries of key provisions and provides links to learn more about how each agreement was negotiated and implemented in practice.

This is our Final Report. It differs markedly from our Interim Report in structure and content layout as a direct result of the manner in which the government received our Interim Report. This change of strategy on our part, amongst other imperatives, is a full acknowledgement that the government is entitled to demand of us a Final Report of a kind that suits its purposes. However we do have a duty to report the truth as we discovered the truth through our investigations, in the context of our own experiences as well as offer best options on the way forward. 

Agricultural investment at the crossroads in Cambodia: Towards inclusion of smallholder farmers?

Secure land tenure is key to eradicating poverty;increasing agricultural investment and ensuring food security;and is an essential element of climate action and climate resilience. Yet women have far weaker rights to land than men. These disadvantages exist broadly and with few exceptions globally and are especially limiting to the well-being of women and their families in rural areas;where land is the basis for livelihood;identity;social standing and social security.

Companies in the business of selling farmland to billionaires and pension funds are peddling it as a green;sustainable and socially responsible investment. This propaganda is working. The digital land records and massive quantities of data that big tech companies like Microsoft and Amazon are vacuuming up from farmersfields make it easier for the companies to scour the planet for profitable farmland deals. They can also use satellite technologies and drones to monitor their farms from a distance. But the world’s farmland is finite.

Proponents of large-scale agriculture have put forward a multitude of reasons to support the advancement of this approach to farming. Large-scale agriculture is seen as the only way to “modernise” and “develop” the land;to close the yield gap;and to ensure food availability. Furthermore;socio-economic outcomes are assumed to be higher under the management of large-scale farming operations than on small-scale farms. This study reviewed scientific literature on the microeconomic and social effects of large-scale land acquisitions in Sub-Saharan Africa.

There are many misconceptions about farming in southern Africa;and one of the most insidious is the notion of ‘viability’. A narrow economistic version has predominated that is based on a normative vision of farming based on full-time;large-scale commercial production. But taking a wider view;what is viable can take different forms more appreciative of the diverse ways farming is intertwined with wider livelihoods;and across different scales.

Report provides an alternate response to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change’s request to the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) to analyse impacts of warming to 1.5°C and related greenhouse gas emission pathways. Covers strengthening indigenous and community land rights;restoring forests and other ecosystems;and transforming agriculture. Confines solution pathways to low-risk land-sector approaches that protect;restore and sustainably manage natural ecosystems;while respecting human rights.

One of the most striking things about some of the study sites in the A1 (smallholder) land reform schemes of Zimbabwe is the amount of small-scale irrigation going on. This is not on schemes or in formalised group gardens;but irrigation by individual farmers;many using small pump sets and pipes. This has been investigated in Masvingo;in Mvurwi in high-potential Mashonaland East;and in Chikobedzi in Chiredzi district in the dry lowveld. It seems to be a widespread phenomenon but is emerging largely unnoticed and unsupported.

A recent wave of large-scale commercial investments in agriculture;extractive industries and other land-based sectors has compounded the ‘global resource squeezein low- and middle-income countries. But many communities affected by land rights violations struggle to assert their rights or obtain redress. Demand for legal support outstrips resources and what is available is not always appropriate. Pursuing litigation often presents significant obstacles and risks to the communities involved without offering any certain outcomes.

New public policies and changing economic fundamentals have spurred private sector investment in commercial agriculture in low- and middle-income countries. Growing numbers of policies and programmes aim to integrate small-scale rural producers into agricultural value chains;based on concepts such as ‘inclusive businessand ‘shared value’.

An analysis of the July South African report on land and agriculture which documents the sorry tale of land reform since 1994. Says action on land reform is long overdue. Makes sensible recommendations on expropriation. Suggests a policy shift towards equity as a goal of land reform and a shift towards redistribution. Makes the case for substantial (at least half) allocations to women and a focus on urban/peri-urban land. Adding to redistribution;restitution and land tenure reform;it suggests a fourth pillar – land administration.