Political Economy of Global Rush for Agricultural Land: a Tract on India’s Overseas Acquisitions
Abstract
This paper is an attempt to map the global land acquisitions with a focus on Indian MNCs in acquiring overseas land for agricultural purposes. It tries to outline the contemporary political economy of capital accumulation at the global level, especially, in the emerging developing economies like India and China, where the emergence of a new capitalist class has engaged itself into acquisition of land and control of other natural resources in Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and South East Asia, for example, water and other minerals to secure itself from the eventual losses of ongoing economic crisis and to earn profit from the volatile agricultural commodity markets. This sway of control of resources by the MNCs has got paramount State support under the helm of neoliberal policies. The paper provides scale of overseas land acquisitions at the current juncture and tries to highlight its causes and the major implications associated with it.
Key words: small farmers, agriculture, land acquisition, economic crisis, transnational corporations, food sovereignty
Data of the article
First received: 02 December 2025 | Last revision received: 04 January 2026 Accepted: 04 January 2026 | Published online: 12 March 2026
Full Text:
PDFReferences
Baran, Paul A., Sweezy., Paul M. (1966). Monopoly Capital: An Essay on the American Economic and Social Order, Penguin Books. Middlesex.
Food and Agricultural Organisation. (2009). The State of Food Insecurity in the World: High Food Prices and Food Security – Threats and Opportunities, Rome
Food and Agricultural Organisation. (2014). The State of Food Security in the World: Strengthening the Enabling Environment for Food Security and Nutrition, Rome
GRAIN. (2010). The World Bank Report on Land Grabbing: Beyond the Smoke and Errors, Available on http://www.grain.org/article/entries/4021world-bank-report-on-land-grabbing-beyond-thesmoke-and-mirrors
Harvey, D. (2006). Neoliberalism As Creative Destruction, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 610, Sage Publications, pp. 22-44
Lenin, V. I. (1917). State and Revolution, Collected Works, Volume 25, pp. 381-492, First Published in 1918. Available on https://www.marxists.org/ebooks/lenin/state-and-revolution.pdf
Patnaik, Prabhat. (2004). The Current Nature of Capitalist Globalisation, Paper Presented in IDEAs’ Workshop: Liberalisation, Macroeconomic Policy and Development options in Asia, 25th-28th September, 2004. http://www.networkideas.org/ ideasact/nov04/ia02_IDEAs_Bangkok_Manila.htm
Patnaik, Prabhat. (2011). Roots of the malice, Frontline. Vol. 28, Issue 17. August 13-26
Rowden, Rick. (2011). India’s Role in New Global Farm Land Grab, http://www.macroscan.org/anl/
aug11/anl230811Rick_Rowden.html. August 1
The Economic Times. (2010). Indian companies buy land abroad for agricultural products, http:// farmlandgrab.org/post/view/10070. 2 January, New Delhi
UNCTAD. (2009a). Food Security in Africa: Learning Lessons from Food Crisis, Forty-Seventh Executive Sessions of the Trade and Development Board. Geneva. 30 June
UNCTAD. (2009b). World Investment Report – Transnational Corporation, Agricultural Production and Development, Geneva
United Nations. (2009). World Economic Situation and Prospects, New York
World Bank. (2010). Rising Global Interest in Farmland: Can it Yield Sustainable and Equitable Benefits, World Bank. Washington DC
Refbacks
- There are currently no refbacks.



Comments on this article
-
Vou recomendar para meus amigos
-
o melhor sem mais
-
Diálogo Do Processo De Administração Democrática Do Estado De Mato Grosso
View all commentsby Ariadna Verdara (2025-11-26)
by Tomás Colaço (2025-12-01)
by Constância Bezerra (2025-04-18)