Sustainable agricultural investment and the global south

In this age of economic globalisation, the agricultural sector requires more investment to meet the global need for food and fuel security, and greater development needs in rural areas in the global South. However, a sharp increase in land acquisition for agricultural investment has given rise to several economic, political, institutional, legal and social concerns. A sustainable and responsible investment in the agricultural sector requires adequate government policies that ensure equitable benefits to all state and non-state actors, and involvement of government and local communities in the agricultural investment regime. In the absence of a comprehensive multilateral investment agreement, the foreign investment regime in the agriculture sector has focused on national law, investment contract and international investment agreements. Thus, the focus of this paper is the legal safeguards available in the investment contracts as well as in the national legal regime, and the responsibility of the state in providing adequate legal tools and market incentives to ensure sustainable agricultural investment. The chapter concludes that the sustainability agenda requires the state to provide effective legal safeguards to be included in national laws and argues for better incentive mechanisms as well as collaborative business practices to reduce governance gaps.