The trend for buying up huge areas of land in poorer countries to grow cash crops like sugar harks back to the Colonial era.
But the problem has not gone away and may even be getting worse due to the increasing demand for food, the pressures of climate change, water scarcity and competition for land from non-food crops such as
In a new report to highlight the scale of land grabs today, Oxfam estimate that 227 million hectares (560 million acres) have been sold, leased or licensed in large-scale land deals since 2001, mostly by international investors.
A lack of transparency over the deals makes them hard to
Dame Barbara Stocking, Chief Executive of Oxfam, said communities rarely have full legal title to the land documented and women, who produce up to 80 per cent of food in some countries, generally have weaker land rights.