Netherlands

A new report by an alliance of civil society organisations chronicles one of the most scandalous failures of development bank investment in agriculture.

Un nouveau rapport d'une alliance d'organisations de la société civile dévoile l'un des échecs les plus scandaleux des investissements des banques de développement dans l'agriculture.

"Le fait que des étrangers s'installe ici, ne pose pas de problème, à condition qu'ils ne fassent pas de production intensive et qu'ils respectent les normes écologiques" explique le porte parole de la Confédération Paysanne en Mayenne

Communities living within the concessions claimed by PHC have long sought to regain control over their lands and have called for negotiations to determine the conditions under which the company may be allowed to continue to operate.

The defenders believe that the charges brought against them are linked to their human rights work of mobilizing and empowering communities in Kiryandongo to resist violent evictions by foreign agribusiness companies.

European MPs issue an interparliamentary statement on the “Finance in common summit”, calling on public development banks to stop "harmful investments", such as those in the oil palm plantation company Feronia in the DR Congo.

The Feronia case, and other development bank investment failures, shows that there is a need to overhaul development finance institutions practices and to consider whether it might be better to just shut them down entirely.

Israeli and Dutch firms, backed by the Dutch export credit agency, have signed a €108mn deal to construct four agriculture production and training centres across Côte d’Ivoire. The scheme is devised by Green 2000, an Israel-headquartered company that specialises in agriculture projects. It involves the construction of four agriculture services and training centres, which provide land, facilities and machinery for producing fruit, vegetables, fish and other products.

Numerous women say they were raped by workers of three multinational companies that have been evicting people off a chunk of land in Uganda measuring about 37.8 square miles to establish large scale commercial farms.

Agilis Partners has released a statement denying all allegations of land grabbing and assuring the public and its stakeholders that they have not evicted anyone from their land.

FrieslandCampina WAMCO and Neon Agro have agreed to acquire 10,000 hectares of land each, while Irish Dairy are to develop 4,000 hectares for their local milk production project.

Thousands of families are being violently evicted from their farms to make way for foreign-owned plantations in Kiryandongo, Uganda.