Land grabbing in post-Soviet Eurasia: the world's largest agricultural land reserves at stake - Oane Visser & Max Spoor (2011)

Extract

[...] In the countries concerned by this study, the global amount of land "grabbed" is under 15%. It's a shame that statistics and data can't confirm yet the pessimistic tone of the article, concerning the destiny of peasants and little farmers. Thus it minimized the impact of land grabbing: other regions might follow this example, leading Russian agriculture into a global crisis and potentially increase the number of societal conflicts. The manifestation that took place in Kazakhstan against Chinese investment and the arrival of chinese workers may be seen as a warning concerning this aspect. [...]

[...] Thus, according to this study, FDI currently doesn't benefit rural workers but a new agrarian reform may act that way. But even if it was the case, FDI will fundamentally be surrounded by shadow areas due to the post-Soviet context: weaknesses of institutions do not guarantee property rights for both investors and farmers. Even if foreign companies employ local populations, the context of instability may force these companies to leave and increase unemployment. In order to benefit the local population, a massive and tiresome institutional reform is to be expected, and may prevent FDI from ever to be welcomed by Russian farmers. [...]

[...] Land grabbing process seems to be underestimated but the lack of empirical evidence can't confirm this impression. Moreover, Spoor and Visser (maybe by choice) occult completely the potential benefits FDI could provide to the rural population in post-Soviet countries. Companies should be forced to modernize an old-fashioned agricultural Russian system that has been struck down since the 1990s and create some dynamism in those campaigns or in some of them at least. I would have been interested to compare the rate of unemployment before and after the arrival of foreign companies for example. [...]

[...] Black Earth lands are relatively old producers for Western countries whereas Siberia is aimed by Asian investments (joined lately by Emirati investments) since the subprime crisis. Asian investments are often state investments, and linked with the massive use of asian workers. They are part of a land accumulation strategy, in order to cover the increasing food needs of Asian population (Chinese particularly). These investments are technically illegal since the implementation in the early 2000s of a land code that forbid land sales but allow foreign companies to buy enterprises in the agricol sector . [...]

[...] Hence, three post-Soviet countries are studied in this paper: Kazakhstan, Russia and Ukraine. Finally, this article also tries to examine to whom the benefits of FDI are likely to accrue. Foreign direct investments are currently used to illegally chase local farmers. This process is enabled by local authorities because those investments are essential for economic development of post-Soviet countries. Analytic reading: International investments and land grabbing: searching for a balance International investments, or "foreign direct investments" (FDI) contribute greatly to globalization of the economy. [...]