This study employs a right to food framework to examine the impacts of large-scale investment on small-scale farmers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. The context for this study is increased interest in agricultural investment by a diversity of actors globally, particularly following the food and financial crises of recent years. Of particular note are a growing number of large-scale agricultural investments by the private sector, often involving the acquisition of large tracts of land. While such investments are frequently carried out for the ends of improving food security and reducing poverty, increasingly, they are implicated in contributing to a global rush on farmland that is in fact exacerbating food insecurity and poverty among small-scale food producers, who comprise the majority of the world’s hungry (De Schutter 2011a).

This study employs a right to food framework to examine the impacts of large-scale investment on small-scale farmers in the Southern Highlands of Tanzania. The context for this study is increased interest in agricultural investment by a diversity of actors globally, particularly following the food and financial crises of recent years. Of particular note are a growing number of large-scale agricultural investments by the private sector, often involving the acquisition of large tracts of land. While such investments are frequently carried out for the ends of improving food security and reducing poverty, increasingly, they are implicated in contributing to a global rush on farmland that is in fact exacerbating food insecurity and poverty among small-scale food producers, who comprise the majority of the world’s hungry (De Schutter 2011a).