MAIN FINDINGS

New analysis published in this synthesis report show that land inequality is significantly higher than previously reported. This trend directly threatens the livelihoods of an estimated 2.5 billion people worldwide involved in smallholder agriculture.

Today, it is estimated that there are approximately 608 million farms in the world, and most are still family farms. However, the largest 1% of farms operate more than 70% of the world’s farmland and are integrated into the corporate food system, while over 80% are smallholdings of less than two hectares that are generally excluded from global food chains.

Although Latin America remains the most unequal region, land inequality in the Asian and African countries sampled increases proportionally more when land value and landless populations are included.

MAIN ANALYSIS

A key outcome of the current trend is an increasingly polarised land and agri-food system, with growing inequalities between the smallest landholders and the largest. Globally dominant food systems are controlled by a small number of corporations and financial institutions, driven by the logic of return on large-scale investments through economies of scale. At the other end of the spectrum are locally dominant agri-food systems, largely made up of small-scale producers and family farmers, connected to particular pieces of land. These are not completely separate systems; there are many points of intersection, but they represent two approaches that are moving further and further apart.

Land inequality is fundamentally related to political inequality, particularly in societies where accumulation of land conveys political power. Land inequality ultimately weakens democracy.

Unemployment and reduced incomes are further results of land inequality, with critical implications for developing countries that have large youth populations (e.g. Africa).

Climate change is both a cause and a consequence of land inequality, reducing agricultural productivity in parts of the world and forcing many off the land altogether. And while large-scale, environmentally damaging monocultures contribute to climate change, the more sustainable land use practices of small-scale farmers and indigenous peoples are threatened by evictions, deforestation, biodiversity loss, and excessive pressure on water and other natural resources.

There are strong connections between land inequality, changes in agricultural practices, global health security, and the spread of disease. COVID-19 is the latest zoonotic disease to emerge from a combination of unsanitary animal farming and pressure on land and wildlife populations, exacerbated by the same drivers that fuel land inequality.

Migration has long been a coping strategy for people faced with poverty, poor living conditions, social exclusion, and lack of opportunities – all factors that arise from unequal access to land.

Land inequality is inextricably related to social exclusion and intergenerational justice. Rural women and youth face multiple challenges linked to land inequality, including reduced access to land and employment prospects, exacerbated by climate change.

Without addressing land inequality of all kinds, it will not be possible to achieve inclusive and sustainable development that leaves no one behind.

There is clear evidence that small-scale and family farmers and indigenous peoples generally produce more net value per unit area than large enterprises, and their land use practices tend to support biodiversity and healthier soils, forests, and water supplies. Women’s land rights and collective land rights are particularly important in this context.

SOLUTIONS FOR EFFECTIVE CHANGE

A range of measures is needed, including redistributive programmes, regulatory reforms, taxation, and accountability measures, not only in relation to land but across the agri-food sector, from inputs to retailing.

To be effective, and to prevent a return to land inequality over time, agrarian reforms should be based on long-term political goals that are aligned with a country’s overall socioeconomic trajectory, embracing broad-based structural change.

Regulation covers a range of measures governing land transfers, ownership, use, and control. Effective land market regulation needs governance institutions with a public purpose, reflecting collective rights, and the ability to act with a certain degree of autonomy.

Land taxes can be a progressive instrument in addressing land inequality. Effectively used, they can discourage accumulation, reduce speculation, and constrain intergenerational transmission of inequality.

There is a need for stronger national laws and policy frameworks that compel investors to follow the highest due diligence standards and human rights and environmental protection standards.

Securing collective rights to protect the well-being, livelihoods, and ability to retain land of mostly indigenous peoples and local communities, as well as securing women’s land rights, are vitally important.

Agroecological movements have grown significantly, defending the land rights of independent family farmers and pushing for change, as well as implementing different practices on the land.