Abstract

Combatting hunger is a major challenge of our time. Increased food security is a crucial objective within the Sustainable Development Goals. The objective is beyond dispute, while strategies are highly contested. This is true a fortiori for large-scale land acquisitions (LSLA) which have been sharply attacked as neo-colonial exploitation and dispossession of local farmers1. The basic idea of this article presents a philosophical perspective of land acquisitions in Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) and it argues how ethically legitimate LSLA might contribute to the enhancement of food security and to the closure of agricultural yield gaps2. Therefore, we analyze the property theory of John Locke from his “Second Treatise About Government” and interpret it within the contemporary frame of the Capability Approach (CA) worked out by Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum. The perspective within this interpretation is a threefold one [1-4]. First, we will discuss the right to property, especially property on land, through the investment of personal labor. Second, we will analyze the Lockean proviso, and third, we will establish an argument for the obligation of investors to increase the capability enhancing consequences of their projects.