AGRA

Africa’s agrarian questions are not adequately addressed by simply asking, “What is the role of African smallholders?”

Uganda's minister of agriculture literally pleaded with the agribusiness delegates at a forum in Capetown to take advantage of Uganda’s extremely advantageous deals for private investors in the agricultural sector.

African countries may need to put in place a code of conduct to govern farmland purchases on the continent by foreigners, an agribusiness conference heard on Monday.

"The rush for land by outside players is more proof of the enormous potential of African agriculture. Africa itself must harness this potential," Kofi Annan says

African nations are becoming more cautious in selling farmland to foreign investors, with governments paying closer attention to deals that could lead to social unrest, AGRA says

It is not clear whether a strategy is in place to ensure that part of the food produced by the rich food importers farms will be sold locally.

Abdullah Alireza, the Saudi minister of Commerce and Industry, talked about farming abroad in a recent visit to Seattle, where he addressed a private gathering of local business people.

As the vicious food price crisis deepens, transnational companies are moving into southern countries on a huge scale and starting to capture millions of hectares of land in order to bring agricultural production further under their control for industrial agrofuel and food production for the international market. Millions of peasants will be pushed out of food production, adding to the hungry in the rural areas and the slums of the big cities. The few that remain will work under full control of the transnational companies as workers or contract farmers.