Foreign Investment In Farmland: No Low-Hanging Fruit

Document summary

There is a global rush on land with recorded agricultural transactions involving foreign investors amounting to 83 million hectares of land in developing countries since 2000 - i.e. 1.7% of the world's agricultural area. Investors originate increasingly from emerging countries especially China, India, Brazil and Malaysia. This report highlights how investment in farmland is driven by long-term trends such as growing consumption of food and biofuels in a context of limited availability of arable land, water and energy. Such investments are not risk-free especially in countries with low governance but also with respect to local populations and the environment. This report also explains how investments in farmland can be a "win-win-win" strategy leading to gains for investors and home countries but also for local communities.