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Keynote Speech from Morgan Ody at the IoS Fair Transitions - LANDac Conference & Summit

05 July 2024
Morgan Ody
Land is power. Throughout most of history, the basis of power has been the control of labor. But when people have access to land, when people can gather, harvest or produce what they need, they will never accept to become laborers and obey a landlord or the boss of a factory. A key change in recent times is that the control of labor is no longer at the center of what makes power, because with mechanization, robotization, and biotechnology it's possible to work 10,000 hectares with very few people. What now allows the control over people is food, and it is also very much related to land.

The Global Land Rush, Revisited

02 December 2021
Lorenzo Cotula

When the US housing bubble burst in late 2008, it dragged major banks into liquidation and destabilised financial systems worldwide. A long, era-defining recession ensued, ushering bank bailouts, currency crises and austerity measures. Meanwhile, China’s skyrocketing industrial production was shifting global economic power.

Land rights for small producers: a critical solution to the world's food systems

16 July 2021
Dr. Agnes M. Kalibata
Dr. Michael Taylor

Our food systems are in urgent need of transformation, as humanity faces one of our biggest challenges yet; feeding a future population of 10 billion people with safe and nutritious food while keeping a healthy planet. Our food system has the power to tip the scales and transform the future of our planet and humankind.

RVO and FAO Round Table on Land Consolidation in the Arab World: Experiences from Egypt, Morocco, Sudan and Tunisia

30 March 2021
Sussy Kadesa Okulo
Lisette Meij

What are the state-of-the-art and new approaches to land consolidation as part of integrated rural development strategies in North Africa and Near East? That was the main question around which several experts from Egypt, Morocco, Sudan, Tunisia, and Turkey joined the FAO/ RVO roundtable discussion on land consolidation during the Second Arab Land Conference last February; a session which 110 participants attended – both in person and online.

Land consolidation or…. can land markets solve land fragmentation?

10 June 2020
Frank van Holst
Kristina Mitic Arsova

It happened on the 29th of January 2020 in Bitola in North Macedonia. More than 200 landowners from Egri village gathered in Bitola’s theatre, taking turns to vote on the Land Consolidation Plan. The serious faces of men and women, old and young, were a sign that they may have been as nervous as we were ourselves. The voting on the first majority based land consolidation ever in the country was coming to an end. And then the result was there….. 83% in favour of land consolidation! The villagers were cheering. Our team was overwhelmed by emotion.

Do we really want peasants?

10 October 2018
Jur Schuurman

The debate on agriculture and development is heated and, apparently, never ending. This is especially true of the role and position of peasant (or smallholder) agriculture, with people either vigorously defending the sector or saying that in time it will (and should) disappear. Prof. Olivier de Schutter is a clear exponent of the former line of thought, as is evident from his contribution ‘We want peasants’ on Land Portal (26 September, 2018).

We want peasants

26 September 2018
Olivier De Schutter

This week in Geneva, the Human Rights Council is expected to take a position on the follow-up to a draft Declaration on the Rights of Peasants and Other Persons Working in Rural Areas. Five years after the start of the negotiations, we are at a turning point.