Two articles by Kerstin Nolte examine the impacts of large-scale land investment.
A joint article with colleagues from Arizona State University, the University of Michigan, the University of Washington, and GIGA in Hamburg published in Nature Food, "Carbon emissions from the global land rush and potential mitigation," examines the potential carbon emissions from land clearing for land investment: In a business-as-usual scenario without regulation, 36,7 million hectares of land transactions would emit 2,26 gigatons of carbon. A hypothetical environmental regulation limited to historical deforestation would reduce emissions, and the area would be only 21,4 million hectares. We propose two strategies to mitigate such risks: 1) voluntary environmental actions aimed at more sustainable value chains, and 2) a set of regulatory recommendations that emphasize sustainable intensification combined with land sparing.
https://rdcu.be/cdvBu
A second article with Jann Lay and Kacana Sipangule appeared in World Development "Large-scale farms in Zambia: Locational patterns and spillovers to smallholder agriculture" examines the impact of large-scale farms on surrounding smallholders. We observe that large-scale farms in Zambia are located near infrastructure and markets - not on idle land, as is often claimed. We also find a strong shift in smallholders’ crop portfolios towards maize, as well as an increase in maize yields of smallholders close to large farms. However, we observe an increase in yields only among larger smallholders. We conclude that the development impact of larger farms should not be overestimated and that smallholders should be protected from direct threats, for example by strengthening their land tenure rights.
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105277
