Responsible investment in agriculture is preferably not about large scale foreign land acquisitions. It is about promoting sustainable agriculture, reducing poverty and meeting the world’s food needs, says IFAD's Harold Liversage
ILC is actually trying to promote some sort of dialogue between the different proposals for principles for responsible farmland investment
The Fund will operate according to a Socially Responsible Investment Manual that features, for the first time in the area of Agribusiness private equity, a Code of Conduct for Land Acquisition and Land Use in Agricultural and Agribusiness Projects to prevent unsustainable practices in land acquisition and land use.
Tanzania's President says his government has decided to work with the private sector in large scale farming and the Tazara corridor is the starting point.
Recently, Kanayo Nwanze, head of the International Fund for Agricultural Development, told a news conference: "It is the wrong language to call them land grabs. They are investments in farmland--like investments in oil exploration."
Even with new guidelines on land leases in Africa, the deals could lead to growing problems down the road, warned Emmy Simmons, a longtime USAID official
Foreign investors must avoid provoking resentment as they buy and lease farmland from developing nations by using local manpower instead of industrialised agriculture, the head of the UN's IFAD said.
A discussion note prepared by FAO, IFAD, UNCTAD and the World Bank Group to contribute to an ongoing global dialogue.
Libya's Muammar Gaddafi called for an end to the purchase of African farmland by food-importing nations at a UN hunger summit on Monday, describing it as "new feudalism" which could spread to Latin America as well.
A strong set of guidelines for land acquisitions abroad could take years, but is necessary for protecting the interests of small farmers, political leaders said.
A draft of the first-ever international code of conduct for farmland deals should be ready by the end of the year, the head of the United Nations' International Fund for Agricultural Development said.
The Government of Japan, with the World Bank, FAO, IFAD and UNCTAD, try to initiate a coordinated global response to the growing land grabbing trend at the UN
