Climate change, land grabbing and food security

Akachi C. Odoemene, Federal University, Otuoke

This paper examines the nexus of climate change, new agro-development model – which has engendered land grabbing – and food security in Africa. It shows how critical intersections of climate change, sustainable energy development, and food security forged one-sided land deals which eventually triggered off the land grab phenomenon. Africa, it argues, is a prime target of this development where populations are displaced and dislocated, as their prime lands are leased out for agro production meant for overseas economies. It argues that two factors related to this development – the alienation of the local poor from land, and the new agro-development – continue to undermine food security and socio-economic livelihoods in Africa. It concludes by highlighting the diverse implications of the tight interconnectedness of climate change with land grabbing, one of which is agro-development, which, it shows, predicates the nature of food (in)security, local livelihoods and human development in Africa.