Sudan

A South African farmers group said on Friday it had received fresh offers from African states, including Sudan and Mozambique, to invest in agriculture to grow export crops and some of the deals will be concluded soon.

Discussions are at a standstill after investors, a joint Arab-foreign company based in the Philippines, insist on owning the lands allocated by the Sudanese government to Jordan for the project,

The paper attempts to present an integrated look at international investments in agriculture from a systems perspective, focusing on Arab investments in Sudan.

Abu Dhabi is preparing to launch a large-scale agricultural project in Sudan to develop more than 70,000 acres of land as part of the oil-rich Gulf emirate's efforts to secure food supplies.

Hassad Food Company intends to invest $500mn to $700mn this year for projects across the world as part of its mission to ensure food security for Qatar, chairman and managing director Nasser bin Mohamed Mubarak al-Fuhaid al-Hajri has said.

Do we or do we not want to promote Arab agricultural integration and to foster inter Arab investments in farming?

As African leaders, many out to line their own pockets, sign away their people's land to foreigners, the continent's people face not having enough food to eat.

"A key obstacle to more transparent debate and informed decisions by governments and investors [involved in global land transactions] is the lack of science-based information," writes Surendra Shah in Nature magazine

Interview with Wadid Erian of the Arab Centre for the Studies of Arid Zones and Dry Lands.

El-Nahda for Integrated Solutions signed an agreement with the White Nile Governorate for a 30-year lease on 60,000 feddans [25,210 ha] of land on which it will build a large-scale commercial rice farm.

Countries that have recently invited India, through the ministry of agriculture, to lease land for farming include Egypt, Ethiopia, Mongolia, Senegal, Sudan, Trinidad and Tobago and Tunisia.

The fund is targeting individual investors and institutions as well as government-owned funds in the region, and will focus on the production of crops and livestock in Sudan and food processing in Egypt.