Korea’s overseas development backfires
- Korea Times
- 04 December 2009
That Korea is no longer "importing" this food that is being grown overseas implies that this land is effectively Korean. This amounts to agricultural imperialism.
That Korea is no longer "importing" this food that is being grown overseas implies that this land is effectively Korean. This amounts to agricultural imperialism.
A planned large-scale commercial farming or food estate project in Merauke, Papua, is expected to trigger fresh investment of up to US$5.3 billion in the area in the next five years.
Henry Saragih, Ketua Umum Serikat Petani Indonesia (SPI) menyesalkan langkah yang diambil pemerintah untuk mendongkrak produksi padi nasional melalui program food estate. Pengembangan food estate justru bertentangan dengan upaya pemerintah mendorong ekonomi kerakyatan, khususnya ekonomi kaum tani.
The food estate program will shift the character of Indonesian agriculture from family farming to corporate based food and agriculture production and weaken national food sovereignty.
Local provincial governments are working hard to develop farmland in other countries -- Russia, Cambodia, Mongolia, Indonesia, the Philippines, Paraguay, Uruguay -- because it’s cheaper than relying on imports
The planned expansion of plantations in the Papuan provinces of Indonesia should be immediately suspended and reviewed amid concerns over massive deforestation and widespread exploitation of local communities, environmentalists warned today.
The Saudi Binladin Group's $4.3 billion planned investment in Papua, east Indonesia, to develop rice fields has stalled because of problems acquiring land from local people.
Un accord entre le gouvernement et une entreprise indonésienne, la GTLeste Biotech, est en gestation depuis le mois de mars. Il est question d'un bail de location – renouvelable – de cinquante ans pour 100 000 hectares de terre destinés à la production de canne à sucre.
K S Oils, one of India’s leading integrated edible oil food companies Wednesday announced further acquisition of 53,000 acres of land for palm oil plantations in Indonesia. This brings the company’s land bank in Indonesia to 1,38,000 acres [56,000 ha], the largest owned by any Indian company.
Several companies like Mitsubishi Corporation are interested in promoting Merauke as a new rice barn in Asia.
The government is preparing a regulation which will put some restrictions on foreign investment in the food industry, including on the length of the investment, and the joint ownership with local firms.
“Our people have already surveyed several areas to choose the right place for planting basmati rice. The investment will be huge,” says Ambassador Khayyat.
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