What started as a government drive to secure cheap food resource has now become a viable business model and many Gulf companies are venturing into agricultural investments to diversify their portfolios.
Nazar Gondal said that government of Saudi Arabia has shown interest to acquire some land in Pakistan for farming but there was no progress in this regard so far.
Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the government has so far not requested for any input from the Foreign Office regarding interest shown by foreign parties to lease Pakistani land for agriculture. “But if my ministry is asked for its input, then I would not oppose this move completely."
The problem is that we will lose control. Of course, some regulatory framework will be put in place, but it will also include ceding of control over our land resource to foreigners for a yet-to-be-specified time period.
Saudi Arabia announces the launch of Agroinvest, which will focus on farm acquisitions abroad to grow wheat, rice, soybeans and other crops in Brazil, Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines, Pakistan and Turkey
It's certainly questionable whether the lease of agricultural land to foreign countries for the purposes of their own food supply is in the best interests of Pakistan, even if it brings in agricultural technology. What do the Arab farmers have that our agricultural universities don't?
Pakistan's Ministry of Investment has decided to offer more than 7 million acres of farmland for long-term investment to the Emirates Investment Group and others. China and Saudi Arabia are also interested.
Estados e inversores privados compiten por comprar superficies en África, Asia y Latinoamérica
"Over the past few weeks the Saudi government has been in talks with us to lease 500,000 acres (202,400 hectares) of farmland and we are currently in the process of locating which land we could give them," Tauqir Ahmad Faiq at the ministry of agriculture, said
In April, concerns over farmers’ rights led the government of Pakistan’s Balochistan province to block direct deals between United Arab Emirates-based private investors and farmers.
Land buying firms no longer disclose their identities to avoid tarnishing their image
Instead of offering incentives on a similar scale to local farmers, Islamabad is offering legal and tax concessions, with legislative cover, to foreign investors in the form of specialised agricultural and livestock 'free zones' and may also introduce legislation to exempt such investors from government-imposed tax bans. The most worrisome aspect of such wheeling-dealing is the government's decision to develop a new security force of 100,000 men spread across the four provinces to ensure stability of the Arab investments.
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UAE-based agtech to raise at least $100mln by year-end – report
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