Panel: Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Transformation through Large-Scale Land Investments and Governance in the Context of Water, Energy and Food Systems Nexus

Abstract 

This panel shall address how large-scale land investments affect structural and livelihood changes in rural Africa. This has become crucial as millions of hectares of land are transformed annually from smallholder production and community use into large-scale commercial farms across Africa. Since 2000, approximately 50 million hectares of new land concessions in rural Africa have been granted to investors, and many of these projects are now becoming operational. Advent of large-scale land investments (LSLIs) constitutes massive external shock to individuals and households in host and nearby villages, which reduces the amount of land available for other (non-) agricultural activities. Such external shocks are associated with numerous spillovers in the forms of benefits and trade-offs including effects on local water, energy and food systems. This panel shall focus its discussions on how LSLI affect water, energy and food systems at the local scale with experiences from five predominantly rural districts specifically Sene West, Banda, Bole, Denkyembour and Kwaebibirim Districts in Ghana and one of such case in Mumias, Kenya. From the case studies employed, the panel seeks to advance an argument that, LSLIs occurring within rural milieu present opportunities and exhibit potentials for rural economic and social transformation considering that, huge land investors often prioritize and integrate local socio-economic development as part of their broad agenda for negotiating land acquisition agreements. However, livelihood vulnerabilities associated with trade-off of land use rights and decisions of rural households have stronger tendencies to subvert livelihood sustainability opportunities from LSLIs to make affected communities and households become worse of in the areas of food, energy and income securities. Thus, contrary to dominant assumption that large-scale land acquisitions hold significant potentials for developing countries through such pathways as increased foreign direct investment for employment generation, transformation and diversification of rural economies, these case studies suggest that LSLIs have greater tendency to undermine rural agriculture and livelihood sustainability within the context water, energy and food systems. 

Venue: Seminar Room, Department of Geography and Resource Development

Convenor: Prince Osei-Wusu Adjei, PhD, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

Panel Participants:

John Boateng, PhD University of Ghana, Legon

Yunus Dumbe, PhD Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

Samuel Kingsford Twene, PhD St. Ambrose College of Education, Dormaa

George Dakurah, PhD Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi

Samuel Boamah Asiedu, PhD Sunyani Technical University 

This panel is organized by MIASA in the context of the Ghana Geographers Association Conference 2024 at the University of Ghana.

For virtual participation via Zoom, please use the following link:

https://uni-freiburg.zoom-x.de/j/64403878331?pwd=U1QoNRL7GxW3EiRk0dmtUTHoE7bjOm.1

Meeting-ID: 644 0387 8331
Code: BevTKHw8B