Saudi Arabia is encouraging companies to invest in farms in Africa as the kingdom seeks to secure supplies of food imports to replace local production, said Agriculture Minister Fahd Balghunaim.

Dar Al-Maskukat Trading of Riyadh has requested a long-term land lease from the Philippines of up to 200,000 hectares of rain-fed government land and private farms to produce rice for the Saudi market.

Saudi Arabia's Ministry of Agriculture wants to hand over the file of foreign agricultural investments to the Saudi Company for Agriculture Investment and Animal Production.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the top four countries on a massive investment spree to acquire agricultural resources.

Sixty years on, controversial agricultural projects are back in fashion in Africa and other parts of the developing world as investors - from foreign governments to wealthy individuals - hunt for land to grow food.

Dalla Al Baraka, a Saudi conglomerate with $5 billion in annual revenue, has acquired two million acres of farmland in eastern Sudan to produce food for export to the Middle Eastern kingdom. While the investors are hoping to wean Saudi Arabia off imports from South America, such agreements cause concern among local Sudanese farmers.

Multinacionales, países petroleros y fondos de inversión están comprando millones de hectáreas. El equilibrio natural, el destino de los campesinos y el futuro del planeta están en juego.

Saudi businessman Saleh Kamel announced last week that the Sudanese government agreed to give his country two million acres [809 371 hectares] of farmland for a project that will allow the Arab Gulf state to ensure a steady food supply.

Habitantes del Interfluvio se mostraron en contra del mega emprendimiento saudí que pretende realizar la producción agrícola intensiva en tierras de El Impenetrable. La declaración se dio en un encuentro realizado este domingo.

La Asamblea Popular expresó "vemos con preocupación cómo el gobierno provincial "sigue avanzando desde el silencio en la concreción del convenio con el grupo árabe “Al Korayef”

Saudi Arabia is reducing grain production to reduce unsustainable use of groundwater and encouraging companies to lease tracts of land in Africa for growing, a new UN report on water says.

The Sudanese finance and national economy minister Ali Mahmood Abdel-Rasool said that his government welcomes an initiative by Saudi King Abdullah Bin Abdel Aziz to work towards Arab food security through the implementation of major economic projects in Sudan.