NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

However, a recent analysis of 160 land deals across 39 countries indicates that, more often than not, such projects in fact target land that already has easy access to irrigation; put a strain on water resources; and compete with local smallholder farmers.

Researchers led by Davide Danilo Chiarelli, of the Polytechnic University of Milan’s civil and environmental engineering department, studied land deals made between 2005 and 2015 across Europe, South America, Africa and Asia. They analyzed records of land acquisitions, hydrological models estimating water availability, and data on crop water demand, to figure out how much water individual land deals would require.