Land is an asset of enormous importance for billions of rural dwellers in the developing world. Recent trends are prompting a massive increase in global commercial interest in land and natural resources, and this is creating unprecedented pressures on land resources, especially in developing countries.

African Governments are planning to leapfrog development and move to a middle income economy in a short time. This requires a sustainable strong economic growth, based primarily on African agricultural resources and initially with huge resources from outside, partly provided by donors but mainly from the private sector through sustainable and responsible investments. All actors should engage in a serious dialogue on how to facilitate and create good investments in order to attract the necessary resources for development.

In many Asian, African, and South American nations, indigenous people are being driven from their homes: Government authorities are leasing hundreds of thousands of hectares of land belonging to indigenous people who only in the rarest of cases possess deeds to the land that are recognised by the authorities. Although in many cases their ancestors have lived on the land for centuries, these rights were never recorded in the land registries. The way of life and the livelihood of many indigenous peoples are severely threatened by their land being sold off.

Since the 2008 food price crisis, foreign investors have been acquiring more and more land in poor countries for producing foodstuffs and biofuels for their own use. Such investments have the potential to promote rural development and food security worldwide. By the same token, however, there is the danger of countless small farmers losing their land, of food insecurity increasing in many places, and of social and ecological systems collapsing through pure "land grabbing".

In order to boost agricultural growth in SSA, further investment in the agricultural sector is urgently needed. The mark-up of ODA funds is a stepping-stone in this regard. However, ODA should function as a catalyst for further private investments and should be used to assist recipient governments in building the institutional framework for attracting private investment and promoting balanced growth. Important success factors include further advances in improving domestic banking and agricultural risk management systems.

As the world continues to experience a severe food crisis, with over one billion people going hungry, land grabbing – the purchase or lease of land by wealthy, food-insecure nations and private investors from mostly poor, developing nations in order to produce food crops for export – is gaining momentum. Some governments and international agencies believe that the in? ux of money and technology can turn land grabbing into a win–win situation for all involved. But is this really the case?

Lessons learnt from India prove that people empowerment through self-help groups and target group orientation still matters for sustainable rural development. However, this is only true if economic, socio-cultural, political and environmental empowerment interlock. This article makes an argument for a grassroot-level and participative approach of people empowerment in regional rural development.

The world food crisis has spurred foreign direct investments (FDI) into arable land in developing countries. While significant financial inflows into agricultural sectors could be beneficial on a global scale, it could negatively affect local livelihoods. This article provides an overview of the different types of FDI in land. In addition, examples of investment flows are illustrated in an overview and a sustainable impact matrix outlines the occurring effects. Finally, requirements of avoiding negative effects are presented, to achieve a Pareto-efficient win-win situation.

Although «urban» and «rural» development are often considered as in opposition to each other and seen as competing with each other for investment and support, many urban centres owe much of their economic base to agriculture. Ironically, one of the best tests of whether rural development is working is whether local urban centres are booming - as increasing agricultural output is served by markets and producer services there, and as real increases in income for a wide range of rural households are reflected in increased demand for goods and services provided by urban-based enterprises.

This presentation summarizes an on-going research in Myanmar, carried out by renowned agricultural specialist U San Thein and a team of experts, with the support of MRLG. This research is based on a thorough analysis of records on vacant, fallow and virgin land allotted for mainly agri-business projects between 1992 and 2016, and also an analysis of the reports of the Parliamentary Investigation Commission on land confiscation and the return of land. The study also included interview responses from key government staff in all concerned line ministries.

WEBSITE INTRODUCTION: This document presents the experiences of two investors, Stora Enso Laos and Outspan Bolovens Limited, who have invested in agribusiness plantations (eucalyptus and coffee respectively) in the south of Lao PDR. It discusses the lessons learned on four key topics related to responsible investment: (1) land acquisition, (2) compensation and benefit sharing, (3) community engagement, and (4) grievance mechanisms.

This conference paper examines how the ideology and programmatic set of policies coined in the term ‘neoliberal modernization’ applies to agriculture and practices in the Mekong region.