IRRI

Case study of Duxton Asset Management's planned investment in Kapunga Rice Farm in Tanzania

"Il se pourrait que d'ici 25 ans l'Inde ou la Chine tirent des ressources significatives de leurs implantations en Afrique subsaharienne", prévoit Robert Zeigler, directeur général de l'Institut international de recherche sur le riz (IRRI).

Companies in Bangladesh are planning to lease thousands of hectares of land for agriculture in some African countries. Robert Ziegler, the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, believes that Bangladesh's food strategy will become more widespread.

As wealthy investors continue to buy up agricultural land in the developing world, stakeholders disagree over how to regulate such transactions.

Some projects aimed at increasing food production in Asia have been dropped or delayed amid the financial crisis, notes a new report by IRRI and the Asia Society.

"Land grabbing" will be featured on the agenda of a high-level conference on the rice industry in November 2010 in Vietnam, where 17 agricultural ministers will be in attendance.

There’s a whole school of economic thought that says that Collier is wrong, that big is not necessarily better in agriculture — and that the land deals therefore might be unwise not because they’re wrong but because they’re unprofitable.

Avec un déficit de 25% dans sa consommation de riz, le royaume d’Arabie saoudite recherche de nouveaux «débouchés » pour s’approvisionner en Afrique notamment dans les pays d’Afrique de l’Ouest où il s’arroge d’énormes superficies acquises à cet effet. La Mauritanie ne déroge pas à cet appétit.

IRRI is not involved in any projects on land acquisition for rice production, nor does it provide advice on land acquisition, but it does find ways to help increase the overall rice supply

The 'Food Pirates' are fast expanding their network, their reach and their control over land. And it is happening fast in our own neighbourhood, writes Devinder Sharma.

"The real worry is that IRRI may help Saudi Arabia produce aromatic rice varieties in Pakistan where these countries have bought large tracts of lands," food policy commentator Devinder Sharma said. "India and Pakistan are already bitter rivals in the Basmati export segment."

Il est difficile de cerner l’ampleur réelle du phénomène récent d’appropriation de terrains cultivables dans les pays du Sud. Mais des études font fortement douter du bénéfice que ceux-ci pourraient en tirer.