Analyses the shifting role of South African farmers, agribusiness and capital elsewhere in Southern Africa and the rest of the continent. Explores recent expansion trends, investigates the interests and agendas shaping such deals, and the legitimating ideologies and discourses employed in favour of them. Now it is being more centrally organised and coordinated than in the past, is more frequently taking the form of large concessions for newly formed consortia and agribusinesses, and is increasingly reliant on external financing through transnational partnerships.

How should African politicians respond to the ‘land rush’? Parliamentarians from the member states of the Central African Economic and Monetary Community (CEMAC) met in mid-November to debate this question. Includes a collective response to agriculture and food security is needed, what land deals are underway in Central Africa?; investment and production, but for which markets?; impacts of land deals on Africa farmers; can Africa help secure the world’s food supply?; transparency isa precondition for inclusive investments; what should be done?

A short paper outlining the likely future impact of HIV/AIDS on land.

Covers introduction, farm workers in South Africa, tenure security for farm workers with a focus on ESTA – including the justice system, farmers’ responses and women farm workers; equity share schemes; rural housing and land redistribution; lessons to and from South Africa.

Argues that the price of commercial farmland in Namibia is high in relation to the profits that can be made from commercial livestock farming. As a result, farming is rapidly becoming the preserve of the urban rich who farm as a lifestyle choice and are prepared to subsidise their farms from their principal sources of income. Government policy is trying to encourage black Namibians into commercial farming through the Affirmative Action Loans scheme. However, given the price of land, many of these farmers will struggle to create commercially viable farms.

Examines cases of confrontation over land in Northern Zambezia, Mozambique. One large company withdrew rather than fight local peasants and take over land being used to grow food. But two other investors chose to push ahead, and have come into conflict with local peasant communities.

Contains a critique of food and land reform policies in South Africa, findings, analysis and recommendations. Findings focus on women and farming: significance, roles and responsibilities, accessing and cultivating land, support from the private and public sector, reflections of emerging women farmers

A brief synthesis of a longer report. Provides a micro-level foundation for discussions of land allocation and its relation to poverty within the smallholder sector of Eastern and Southern Africa based on results from household surveys in Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique and Rwanda between 1990 and 2000.

Provides a micro-level foundation for discussions of income and asset allocation within the smallholder sector in Eastern and Southern Africa, and explores the implications of these findings for rural growth and poverty alleviation strategies in the region. Results are drawn from nationally representative households in five countries between 1990 and 2000: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Rwanda.

Includes country context, characteristics of land investment, how land is acquired, impacts. Several large hedge and equity funds are involved in acquiring land, farm blocks are plagued by problems, there is lack of consultation, no transparency, little protection for small-scale farmers, and serious concerns about conversion of land from food to agrofuel production

Examines international evidence on the relationship between asset ownership and growth and the impact of redistributive land reform, plus evidence of the impact of land reform in Zimbabwe. Asks why it appears that resettled farmers are among the poorest in the population. Concludes that asset redistribution can be a viable strategy to enhance growth, that the performance of resettled farmers in Zimbabwe is better than is conventionally believed, and that if a land reform programme is well designed, it can have a large impact on equity as well as productivity.

Includes the rise of land deals in sub-Saharan Africa; land grabbing and risks for small scale farmers; land grabs: another yoke over women’s land rights?; is land grabbing threatening pastoralism?; opportunity for groups at risk: the African Union’s continental standards on the land question.