A CTA Rural Development Briefing in Central Africa on “Land access, land acquisitions and rural development: New challenges, new opportunities” will be held in Yaoundé, Cameroun, on 27-28th September 2010
Le revers de la médaille, c'est la ruée sur les terres arables de certains Etats et groupes privés qui mettent à mal le développement d'une agriculture paysanne, pourtant seule à même de répondre aux problèmes de la faim et de pauvreté des pays du Sud.
This report focuses on the role of the EU and its member states in land grabbing in Africa.
"We have Indonesians and Malaysians coming in and saying we want 100,000 hectares to make PNG a rice producing country," says PNG’s Deputy Prime Minister Sir Puka Temu
Expanding the acreage of organically farmed land to 20% would increase the EU's virtual land importation by 30%. And policies to achieve the EU’s 10% biofuel objective would also increase the rate of EU land-grabs.
A new report argues that the EU has become the world's largest net importer of agricultural produce, and therefore the largest user of agricultural land that is not its own.
European Union governments want to develop a global code of conduct for foreign investments in agricultural land in developing countries, according to a draft paper on food security seen by Reuters.
The Commission plans to launch a joint initiative with the African Union that will include a roadmap for the implementation of "sustainable large-scale investments in farmland".
Parliament yesterday approved a resolution calling on the government to get the EU to extend a ban on the purchase of farmland by foreigners for another three years. The current moratorium will end in 2011.
Fears of a land grab by wealthier western EU countries prompted Hungary, and most of the members that joined in 2004, to negotiate temporary derogations in the case of agricultural land. The derogation is due to expire in May 2011.
Der Spiegel video on Dominion Farms in Kenya and a Chinese farm project in Tanzania. Auf Deutsch.
22. Stresses that farmland acquisition by foreign investors, particularly in Africa, must not have an adverse impact on local food security or lead to unsustainable land use; points out that it may also have positive effects by bringing land into productive use; urges the FAO and the Member States to work towards common rules and legislative proposals which recognise the right of local people in every country to control farmland and other natural resources vital to their food security;
