Land Grabbing and Food Security in Developing Countries

Abstract The aim of the article is to present the phenomenon of land grabbing and its impact on ensuring food security in Africa between 2000 and 2020. The analysis used data on large-scale land acquisitions from the Land Matrix database and legal acts from the online contracts repository, i.e., the Open Land Contracts (OLC) kept at Columbia University. In the article non-reactive research methods were used, i.e., the analysis of the literature on the subject as well as statistical and descriptive methods. Between 2000 and 2020, Africa recorded the highest number of large-scale land acquisitions on a global scale. Transactions were concluded throughout the period, although most of them were concluded from 2007 to 2011, i.e., during the periods of higher prices of agricultural products. In terms of specific objectives, agricultural transactions were dominated by food crops (182 transactions and over 1 million ha of contracted land) and crop production for biofuels (55 transactions and almost 1.5 million ha of land). 64.3% of agricultural land purchase transactions were in the operational phase, i.e., in production. The conducted research allowed for drawing the following conclusions: some of the agreements omitted the issue of food security of local communities altogether, which contradicts the declarations of national governments, whose aim was to guarantee it as a result of the defectiveness of the contracts (vide the methods of their conclusion and enforcement), they are unilaterally invalidated by the national courts in the host country or are sued by investors; land grabbing contributes to the loss or reduction of food security in developing countries that seek to obtain investments in arable land.