Rural poverty and food insecurity are frequently the result of “institutional failures” (including coordination failures, land insecurity, gender discrimination and marginalization of indigenous populations), which prevent the development of more dynamic food production systems. To a large extent, low income and food insecurity among small-scale farm holders can be traced back to the lack of adequate access to land. Traditional land reform designed to improve access to land and provide support to different forms of association among farmers would help to effect economies of scale in production and, most importantly, in the marketing of food crops. However, changing land distribution practices, securing property rights and creating incentives that benefit small farm holders often require the formation of political coalitions that might challenge the status quo. An estimated 56 million hectares of land in developing countries were bought by foreigners in 2009, a tenfold rise from the previous decade, with two-thirds of these sometimes controversial “land grabs” occurring in Africa (Deininger et al., Improved national dialogue and empowerment of communities and traditional small-scale farmers is essential in countries engaged in land leasing to foreign investors.