Globally, land provides sustainable livelihood to more than 2 billion small and ma-rginal farmers including a high percentage of women and tribal families. Global po­pulation will reach 7 billion next year and land is becoming a shrinking resource for agriculture. Investor interest in land is, therefore, growing. While no accurate data is available on the extent of land alienation in recent years, it is estimated that 50 to 80 million hectares have been subjected to negotiations by international investors, either for purchase or for lease. According to a World Bank (2010) projection, “the land rush is unlikely to slow”. It is generally believed that such a rush is for strengthening food security or for biofuel production. Evidence to substantiate this hope is yet to emerge.

The UN Committee on World Food Security (CFS) requested in October 2010 its high level panel of experts (HLPE) to prepare a report on land tenure and international investment in land with particular reference to food security. I chair the steering committee of HLPE and we have just completed the study requested by CFS. Our Report will be considered by CFS in October 2011. We were ala-rmed at the trend of land becoming a global asset to be traded like any other commodity. Land is the backbone of the livelihood security system of the poor and also the guardian of biodiversity and ecosystem services. This is why we are witnessing a growing number of “land wars” in our country. Apart from the question of compensation in cases of land acquisition, at stake are the larger issues of food, livelihood and ecological security. Land grab is equivalent to grabbing the livelihood of the poor. Our committee has, therefore, formulated se-veral recommendations to CFS, including a mechanism for monitoring the situation in respect of international and national purchases of land and their likely impact on food security. Investors believe that the largest opportunity for land acquisition is in sub-saharan Africa, which is already suffering from extensive endemic hunger.

On my suggestion as chairman of the FAO high level committee on UN Millennium Development Goals, FAO is launching in September, 2011 a Global Soil Partnership with the following objectives:

Create and promote awareness among decision makers and stakeholders on the key role of soil resources for sustainable food security.

Address critical soil issues in relation to food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation.

Guide soil knowledge and research through a common global communication platform incorporating local challenges.

Establish an active and effective network for addressing crosscutting soil issues.

Develop global governance guidelines aiming to improve soil protection and sustainable soil productivity.

In our country, we need a National Soil Observatory for food security and climate change adaptation and mitigation. The ministry of rural development is in charge of land use boards and now that a dynamic young minister is heading the ministry, I hope that such an observatory will come into existence soon.

I would like to make two ot­her points in relation to

putting an end to the prevailing greed revolution in land requisition. First, as recommended by the National Commission on Farmers (2006) and as incorporated in the National Policy for Farmers (2007), prime farmland must be conserved for agriculture. Otherwise, the number of hungry people in the country will increase further. Where land is needed for an essential public purpose, compensation should be based on current market value along with a provision for safeguarding the livelihood of the farm family, either through a job or a life long pension. This will compensate the farmer under conditions where land value is increasing steeply year after year.

The second step would be to bring about a marriage between brain and brawn or technology and labour in the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGA). The programme has laudable objectives like rainwater harvesting, aquifer recharge, watershed management and wa-steland development. All the-se require not only labour, but also technical know-how. I had, therefore, suggested wh-en the programme began, that we should set up a technical back-up consortium in every district, with membership dr-awn from the best available institutions in the area, to provide scientific know-how for converting goals into accomplishments. Panchayati Raj institutions need this support to make MGNREGA not only the largest social security programme, but also the most effective custodian of ecological security.

Land, whether in Africa or India, is crying for investment for making it more productive and for creating soil carbon banks that can serve as a mitigation measure in respect of climate change. The challenge is to make investment an effective tool to strengthen livelihood security of the poor and food and ecological security of the nation.

(The writer is an agricultural scientist who led India’s green revolution)