ABSTRACT
Large-scale land acquisitions (LSLAs) or ‘land grabs’ have over the last decade primarily focused on Africa. Of the top 11 countries that account for 70% of global LSLAs, seven (Sudan, Mozambique, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo) are in Africa (Anseeuw et al. 2012). The total area of LSLAs in Africa is estimated to amount to 134 million hectares (Anseeuw et al. 2012). As the primary purpose of these LSLAs is agricultural, including both food and non-food (e.g. biofuel) crops, a fundamental but unexplored hydrological assumption is whether the requisite water to sustain crop production exists. Indeed, this assumption underlies the accusation that ‘land grabs’ are, in fact, ‘water grabs’.
