New agribusiness investments mean wholesale sell-out for women farmers

Trade liberalisation impacts on local land markets and land-use; the cost of land and agricultural assets affect food prices; and the combined effect is particularly damaging to women who produce food and who put food on the table for their families. This paper examines three issues: what is attracting investors and market speculators into the farm and land sectors? What is at stake for small farmers and especially women farmers and long-term impacts for food production and food security? And what action is needed to enable women to secure access to natural resource and land assets for current and future generations?

Renewed interests in land and farm investments worldwide is a response in part to growing demand for food, water and fuel; in part to the opportunities provided by international market speculations; and in part because countries are seeking to secure their own food sources to protect them against future market upswings in food price and availability. The problem is that powerful coalitions of agro-industrial corporations, investment finance, and bio-technology research, are poised to set up new systems of large-scale controlled farming in countries that have little power to negotiate their own interests.

In this scenario women farmers in particular stand to lose land and become contract farm labourers with no collateral, as their land rights are often weak. This paper argues that the core solutions enabling women farmers to determine their choices and priorities and hold local governments accountable lie in building alliances, supporting dialogue and solidarity across local and international borders.

Recommendations include:

• Building solidarity with groups that promote food security over commercial farming, such as peasant movements, organic farmer groups, and food movements.
• Support diversity farming methods and policies, which mimic natural eco-systems, that nurture and promote a variety of species and genetic diversity on the farm.
• Legal registration and titling of land need to be customised for women’s interests.