Pakistan’s corporate land grab: A recipe for food insecurity and displacement

By Bharat Dogra

On World Environment Day, June 5, 2025, the international research organization GRAIN released a searing indictment of Pakistan’s current land-use policies. The report, “Gulf investors in, locals out—Pakistan’s corporate farming agenda,” lays bare how Pakistan’s powerful elite—led by military-backed institutions—are reshaping the country’s agricultural landscape in favour of foreign investors and corporate agribusinesses, especially from the Gulf region. This aggressive land acquisition drive under the so-called Green Pakistan Initiative is not just a policy misstep—it is a direct assault on local food and water security.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE have emerged as the most prominent players in this high-stakes land grab. According to GRAIN, Saudi agribusiness companies are taking over vast swathes of Pakistani farmland to develop industrial-scale cattle and dairy farms, while Emirati companies—well-versed in international farmland acquisitions—are aggressively expanding their reach in Pakistan. Nearly 400,000 hectares have already been handed over to private investors, including Chinese companies promoting genetically modified cotton and peanut monocultures meant solely for export.

Supporters of the initiative claim it will bring investment, modernize agriculture, and boost productivity. But the voices on the ground, particularly across Punjab and Sindh, tell a very different story. Local farmers’ organizations have been sounding the alarm, accusing the government of using corporate farming as a façade to enable corporate mafias to seize land and water. They fear—justifiably—that the water being diverted for these mega-projects will worsen drought conditions downstream and further marginalize smallholder farmers and pastoralists already struggling with climate stress.

Critics also warn that this corporate overhaul of agriculture is not about ensuring food for Pakistanis, but about fulfilling the food security needs of wealthier, water-scarce Gulf states. The promised benefits to local communities remain elusive. Instead, the pattern is eerily reminiscent of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), where large-scale infrastructure development brought with it widespread displacement, ecological degradation, and questionable returns for local populations.

The lack of transparency in the land allocation process adds to public distrust. Farmland is being labelled as "wasteland" to deflect criticism, but residents argue that these lands are actively used by small farmers and herders. It is highly implausible that Gulf and Chinese investors would pour billions into lands that are truly unproductive. What is more likely is that lands essential to the survival of rural communities are being reclassified and transferred without informed consent.

Opposition to this wave of corporate expansion is mounting. Recent plans to construct canals to divert water for corporate farms in Cholistan and other regions have sparked massive protests. In response, authorities were forced to temporarily suspend these canal projects. Yet, without a shift in priorities, this issue is bound to resurface—mega-farms require mega-water, and the government seems determined to find it, regardless of the cost to local communities.

This land rush comes at a time when Pakistan is reeling from multiple food security shocks, including the COVID-19 pandemic and devastating floods. Instead of strengthening the resilience of small-scale agriculture—the backbone of the nation’s food supply—policy is moving in the opposite direction. Land and water, the two most critical resources for food production, are being handed over to foreign entities whose priorities lie far from the needs of Pakistan’s people.

What’s unfolding is not just an economic or environmental issue—it is a grave social injustice. By enabling the dispossession of local communities in favour of foreign profit, Pakistan is undermining its own sovereignty, deepening inequality, and risking long-term food insecurity.

It’s time for a serious rethink. Development that sidelines people is not development—it is exploitation in the name of progress.

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Bharat Dogra is Honorary Convener, Campaign to Save Earth Now. His recent books include Planet in Peril, Saving Earth for Children, and A Day in 2071

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