The rush for land in Africa : resource grabbing or green revolution?

Abstract

The article details features and implications of the global land rush, with particular focus on Africa. Data and analyses of the ‘Land Matrix’ project help to provide an overview of these land-based investments, while locally implemented case studies in the framework of the ‘Commercial Pressures on Land’ project facilitate the assessment of implications related (or not) to the question of Africa’s green revolution. By emphasising the need to go beyond the land acquisition phenomenon and its direct consequences, it re-contextualises the rush for land and relates it to broader dynamics of agrarian transformation in Africa.While the present rush for land may represent a revitalisation of Africa’s agricultural sector, it is doubtful that this revolution benefits the continent overall.