Kenya

Indian firms have signed land deals in Ethiopia, Kenya and Madagascar to produce a range of food crops for export to India.

Corruption has reached tremendous levels in Kenya. The distance between the poor and wealthy is at its greatest and Kenyans are wondering how to emerge from an unjust system in the land that gave birth to Humanity.

The Qatari land deal in Kenya’s Tana River Delta has been seized upon by locals who have promised to fight it – to the death, if it comes to that.

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.

Las adquisiciones de tierra en África, Asia y Latinoamérica, tal y como se hacen en la actualidad, suponen condenar a los más pobres a ser desalojados de sus fincas o a perder acceso a la tierra, al agua y a otros recursos, según el primer estudio sobre la nueva tendencia de grandes corporaciones y gobiernos de invertir en tierras en países pobres, encargado por las agencias de las Naciones Unidas de la Agricultura y Alimentación y del Desarrollo (FAO y UNDP).

CNN's John Defterios takes a look at how Middle Eastern countries are scouring the globe for farmland.

I came across the word “peasant” as a small boy in 1979. That was my second year of learning the English language when government Census officials came knocking on our door in Western Kenya armed with two big English words I had never heard before; “Occupation” and “Peasant!”

Kenya’s plans to lease out about 100,000 acres of land to a Gulf state for agriculture at a time when the country is facing serious food shortages has been criticised.

More important is for Africa to realise its own potential for food production, which would in the long-term negate the need for these deals.

Mohammed Mbwana, who farms in the Tana River delta area and is an official of a local NGO, said the Qatar agreement would displace thousands of locals. At least 150,000 families in farming and pastoralist communities depend on the land in question, said to be part of Kenya’s biggest wetland.

A number of African countries are inviting South African farmers to come over to their countries and ply their trade, and Libya is included.

Le débat tourne plutôt sur la question de la vente ou non des terres aux étrangers, et non aux riches nationaux... Et si les écologistes conservateurs multiplient lobbying et pressions pour faire capoter les contrats, il ne s'agit pas pour eux de défendre les intérêts des fermiers.