Includes bibliographical references (pages 181-195) and index.

List of maps, tables and figures -- Notes on contributors -- Preface -- Acknowledgements -- List of abbreviations -- Introduction: the contexts and consequences of Africa's land rush / Ruth Hall, Ian Scoones and Dzodzi Tsikata -- State, land and agricultural commercialisation in Kwara State, Nigeria / Joseph A. Ariyo and Michael Mortimore -- Recent transnational land deals and the local agrarian economy in Ghana / Joseph Awetori Yaro and Dzodzi Tsikata -- Large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia: implications for agricultural transformation and livelihood security / Maru Shete and Marcel Rutten -- Land deals and pastoralist livelihoods in Laikipia County, Kenya / John Letai -- Land deals in the Tana Delta, Kenya / Abdirizak Arale Nunow -- The state and foreign capital in agricultural commercialisation: the case of Tanzania's Kilombero Sugar Company / Emmanuel Sulle and Rebecca Smalley -- Trapped between the farm input subsidy programme and the green belt initiative: Malawi's contemporary agrarian political economy / Blessings Chinsinga and Michael Chasukwa -- Agrarian struggles in Mozambique: insights from sugarcane plantations / Gaynor Paradza and Emmanuel Sulle -- South African commercial farms in the Congo / Ruth Hall, Ward Anseeuw and Gaynor Paradza -- References -- Index.

This book explores the processes through which land deals are being made; the implications for agrarian structure, rural livelihoods and food security; and the historical context for changing land uses. The case studies reveal that these land grabs may resonate with, even resurrect, forms of production associated with the colonial and early independence eras. Based on interviews with the investors, government authorities, workers, outgrowers and smallholder farmers in Nigeria, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, Mozambique and the Congo, the book depicts the striking diversity of such deals.