Large-scale agricultural investments in developing countries have escalated over the past decade. While much is written about the potential adverse effects of these acquisitions on local communities, there is a paucity of evidence of these impacts. This paper explores the effect of large-scale agribusinesses on household food security in two locations in Madagascar. One is plantation area or Location A and the other one is contract farming area or Location B. The sample of 601 households was classified into households (i) in which at least one member was employed or (ii) contracted to the agribusiness, (iii) in the same area that were neither employees nor contractors (non-engaged) and (iv) counterfactual households from another community. Employment opportunities from the agribusinesses seemed to improved food security. Dietary quality, food security and resilience were higher among employed households. Contract households were generally more food insecure than the counterfactual and non-engaged households. Living in the zone of influence did not seem to have major adverse effects on the food security of non-engaged households. However, female-headed households seemed disadvantaged in terms of access to employment and contracting opportunities. Unless attention is paid to women's access to employment and contracting opportunities, inequality may be exacerbated.

L’usage du réseau social Twitter par les élus locaux se généralise. Il offre un espace illimité d’expressions et d’échanges entre les élus et avec les citoyens. Twitter prolonge et dédouble ainsi les débats qui prennent part dans les assemblées élues. À partir du cas du Conseil de Paris, il est possible d’observer les modes d’appropriation de ce média comme nouvelle arène du débat public local. L’analyse des contenus des messages et des liens entre les comptes des élus permet de quantifier les échanges et d’identifier les sujets de controverses locales. Les enjeux d’aménagement de l’espace sont notamment ici étudiés à travers le débat quant à la construction de la tour Triangle.

Large-scale agricultural investments (LAIs) transform land use systems worldwide. There is, however, limited understanding about how the common global drivers of land use change induce different forms of agricultural investment and produce different impacts on the ground. This article provides a cross-country comparative analysis of how differences in business models, land use changes, and governance systems explain differences in socio-economic, food security, and environmental impacts of LAIs in Kenya, Madagascar, and Mozambique. It brings together results on these aspects generated in the AFGROLAND project that collected data in a multi-method approach via household surveys, business model surveys, semi-structured household interviews, life-cycle assessments of farm production, analysis of remote-sensing data, key informant interviews, and document analysis. For the present project synthesis, we combined a collaborative expert workshop with a comparative analysis of 16 LAIs. The results show that the LAIs follow four distinctive impact patterns, ranging from widespread adverse impacts to moderate impacts. Results demonstrate how the following conditions influence how the global drivers of land use change translate into different LAIs and different impacts on the ground: labor intensity, prior land use, utilization of land, farm size, type of production, experience in local agriculture, land tenure security, accountability of state and local elites, the mobilization capacity of civil society, expansion of resource frontiers, agricultural intensification, and indirect land use change. The results indicate that commercial agriculture can be a component in sustainable development strategies under certain conditions, but that these strategies will fail without substantial, sustained increases in the economic viability and inclusiveness of smallholder agriculture, land tenure security, agro-ecological land management, and support for broader patterns of endogenous agrarian transformation.

O objetivo desta crônica é apresentar as atividades e os diferentes atores que participam da exploração dos recursos gemíferos no nordeste de Minas Gerais. Considerada uma das maiores reservas de pedras preciosas do mundo, a área é uma oportunidade perfeita para o melhor entendimento deste tipo de indústria.

No abstract