UAE

Dubai-based AWGAL Investments is in advanced talks with farmers in Texas to invest in cattle farms to produce Halal-certified US beef for the GCC and MENA region.

A 20,000 ha tranche of Serbian farmland bought by an Abu Dhabi firm should be providing a substantial amount of the UAE's food within the next five years.

Abu Dhabi's Al Dahra Agricultural Company is to develop 9,000 hectares of farmland in Serbia as it seeks to bolster food security in the UAE.

UAE seeks to have Argentina join the ranks of other world countries such as India, USA, Canada and Brazil in becoming a primary supplier of food to the country.

"Today, all patriotic Africans are weeping when they see how African governments are giving out African lands, dispossessing the African people of their ancestral land, for practically next to nothing, in the name of attracting foreign investors!", writes Abba Mahmood

The UAE is eying lands overseas in order to provide ongoing food supply to face the increase in the country’s population as the UAE imports steadily soared in the past few years, Ministry of Economy official said.

Ethiopia's State Minister of Industry, Tadesse Hailem, says the investors have expressed interest to invest in the agriculture sector in Ethiopia and export it to their country.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are among the top four countries on a massive investment spree to acquire agricultural resources.

At least 100 farmers joined a protest in front of the Department of Agriculture in Quezon City led by the members of the Asian Peasant Coalition (APC) in the Philippines such as the Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP), AMIHAN (National Federation of Peasant Women), UMA (Union of Agricultural Workers), and the PAMALAKAYA (National Federation of Small Fisherfolks of the Philippines). Also present is the Anakpawis partylist and the National Network of Agrarian Reform Advocates (NNARA)-Youth.

The UAE should instead be looking to diversify and better monitor its agricultural investments abroad, says Dr Raed Safadi, the deputy director of trade and agriculture at the OECD.

African officials have called for greater equity and fairness in trade with the GCC countries that use agricultural land in Africa to feed their populations while famines continue to ravage the continent.

In an effort to improve food security, the government has been investing in agriculture projects abroad, especially in Vietnam, Cambodia, Egypt, Pakistan, Romania, Sudan and the Americas, to secure food supplies and safeguard against market fluctuations.