Korea's Daewoo leases half Madagascar's arable land
The BBC reports:
My first reaction is "wow!" this could potentially demonstrate how trade and foreign direct investment can bring new technologies and agricultural practices to Madagascar that could help to raise local incomes. My second reaction however is, who did Daewoo lease half of the arable land in Madagascar from!? My understanding, from reading a few papers on the topic (such as this one) is that while Madagascar is most certainly a land abundant country with very low productivity agriculture, it is also true that local communities have property rights claims to the land that they have used as farmers or pastoralists. Madagascar has in fact been supposedly recognizing and titling these claimants. The question then is from who did Daewoo lease this large of a chunk of land. I presume the government. But were these local indigenous claimants consulted and do they stand to benefit? What will be done about the displaced? Another question is does Daewoo plan to work its plantations with South African labor because not enough local labor was available? This BBC story and the others I have seen do not yet provide adequate answers to any of these questions.
Daewoo leased the vast tract of land - which is half the size of Belgium - for 99 years and hopes to produce 5m tonnes of corn a year by 2023.
...It will manage the plantations directly and use South African labour.
My first reaction is "wow!" this could potentially demonstrate how trade and foreign direct investment can bring new technologies and agricultural practices to Madagascar that could help to raise local incomes. My second reaction however is, who did Daewoo lease half of the arable land in Madagascar from!? My understanding, from reading a few papers on the topic (such as this one) is that while Madagascar is most certainly a land abundant country with very low productivity agriculture, it is also true that local communities have property rights claims to the land that they have used as farmers or pastoralists. Madagascar has in fact been supposedly recognizing and titling these claimants. The question then is from who did Daewoo lease this large of a chunk of land. I presume the government. But were these local indigenous claimants consulted and do they stand to benefit? What will be done about the displaced? Another question is does Daewoo plan to work its plantations with South African labor because not enough local labor was available? This BBC story and the others I have seen do not yet provide adequate answers to any of these questions.
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