The Global Land Squeeze: Rising Inequality and Its Impact on Smallholder Farmers

Smallholder farmers and communities around the world are experiencing a phenomenon called “land squeeze,” which is exacerbating persistent rural poverty and land inequality. This is the result of a number of pressures, including the consolidation of big farms. As these farms grow larger, many smallholder farmers are left with increasingly fragmented and smaller plots of land. In Asia, overall land inequality has risen by as much as 11 percent since 1980. On a global scale, land consolidation means 1 percent of the world’s largest farms now control 70 percent of all farmland.

These are just some of the findings detailed in the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems’ new report titled Land Squeeze, published on Tuesday. The following chart provides a brief overview of some of the key processes leading to land squeeze outlined in the report. These processes range from land grabbing and ‘green grabbing’ to the encroachment of different industries on arable land and urbanization, all set against the backdrop of the climate crisis.

Key Drivers of Land Squeeze:

1. Land Grabbing 2.0: Farmland is increasingly transferred from farmers to financial actors, such as agribusinesses, investors, or foreign governments. The food price spikes during the pandemic and the supply chain issues linked to the war in Ukraine have “revived ‘feed the world’ narratives,” leading to a renewed push to secure land for export commodity production.
2. Green Grabbing: Carbon offsetting schemes, such as tree planting initiatives, are used to appropriate land. These projects now account for roughly 20 percent of large-scale land deals.
3. Expansion and Encroachment: Land is taken from agricultural purposes and used for other, extractive means such as mining or for urbanization and major infrastructure projects.
4. Food System Reconfiguration: Smallholder farmers are integrated into corporate value chains, which minimizes their choices in farming practices and can lead to unsustainable land use.

Consequences of Land Squeeze:

The issues stemming from these processes are manifold. The land squeeze is eroding meaningful access to and control over land for farmers, pastoralists, Indigenous Peoples, and marginalized groups. These pressures critically undermine small-scale food producers’ livelihoods, pushing them towards a dangerous tipping point and posing grave threats to food security.

The Land Squeeze report highlights how these ongoing processes are rooted in a long history of dispossession, oppression, and discrimination of smallholders, Indigenous Peoples, and traditional communities. These issues stem from dominant narratives about how humans should farm and extract from the land.

As these pressures continue to mount, the need for sustainable and equitable solutions becomes increasingly urgent. Addressing land inequality and supporting smallholder farmers are crucial steps in ensuring a stable and secure global food system.