LAUSR

Agriculture has a dominant role in rural land use in many countries, meaning that farmers control and manage much of the land, including its biodiversity and water resources. It is estimated that there are 570 million farms worldwide, of which 410 million are less than a hectare in size and 475 million less than 2 ha. Most of these small-scale farmers are in developing countries, often cultivating poor and marginal land. At least two billion people are subsisting on very small plots, and probably selling or trading a proportion of their harvest for other basic necessities. Despite their dominance in terms of numbers, people farming less than 2 ha only occupy 12% of total agricultural land, with the large majority of the remainder held by larger family-run farms (Lowder, Skoet, and Raney 2016). Small farms are generally more labour-intensive, which in the past has resulted in poverty reduction and increased food security (Hazell et al. 2010). Despite predictions that small farms will disappear, until recently they have proven to be resilient. A number of factors are now converging to squeeze small-scale farmers. These include the persistent failure of governance at multiple levels, population growth driving urban sprawl and land development for energy and raw materials, and the dominance of agribusiness value chains that favour large mechanised farms. The trend is now towards consolidation into larger farms as the wealth of society increases, and abandonment of marginal farms. In Europe for instance, farm abandonment is occurring throughout the Mediterranean and central and eastern countries (Keenleyside and Tucker 2010). Land tenure is changing fast. In many countries around the world, legal title to land remains poorly defined, meaning that tenure is fragile and farmers are vulnerable to expulsion by the more powerful; in Africa 90% of land is informally administered (Cheremshynskyi and Byamugisha 2014). ‘Land grabs’ are the acquisition by outside interests of rights to establish farms, plantations, or ranches on lands where tenure has until then been collective, communal or customary (Cotula et al. 2011). They are increasing in many countries (Li 2011). Although best known as a ploy by wealthy countries, the commonest land grabs are by domestic investors in developing countries, often with government support, focusing on good farmland near agricultural markets (Cotula et al. 2014). Sudden imposition of intensive farming following land grabbing has reduced water availability in some dryland countries and created high deforestation rates in SouthEast Asia and Brazil (Rulli, Saviori, and D’Odorico 2013). Land grabs often occur against the will of existing inhabitants (Franchi et al. 2013), corruption is rife (Greco 2015) and local socio-economic divisions tend to increase as a result (Galaty 2013). Concurrently, and partly as a result of these pressures on small farmers, there has been a rapid increase in urbanisation. In 2007, the global balance tipped for the first time in history, with more people living in urban than in rural areas (UN 2014). This process is projected to continue, particularly in Africa and Asia. Current estimates indicate that in Africa new urban residents will rise by over 300 million between 2000–2030 – more than twice the growth in rural populations (Currie et al. 2015). Over 60% of the world’s irrigated croplands are located near urban areas, mainly as small plots; as cities grow they increase competition with agricultural land. In 2000, 30 million ha of croplands globally were located in areas projected to be urbanised by 2030, representing a total cropland loss of around 2%. Africa and Asia are projected to experience 80% of global cropland loss due to urban area expansion, often impacting prime agricultural land, much of which is twice as productive as national averages (d’Amour et al. 2016). A 3% loss of these most valuable croplands