"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.
Islamabad instead of allowing foreigners control of local agri-land should use twenty million acres of government land to settle 2 million families by allotting ten acres land to each family
The government was asked on Saturday to immediately stop all land deals being negotiated with foreign governments, investors, US seed company Monsanto and other agro-chemical companies promoting genetically-modified crops, especially BT cotton.
Because of the political sensitivity of the modern-day land grab, it is often only the country's head of state who knows the details. Der Spiegel investigates.
Regierungen und Investmentfonds erwerben in Afrika und Asien Ackerland, um Nahrungsmittel anzubauen – ein lohnendes Geschäft, weil die Preise rasch steigen. Das Milliarden-Monopoly führt zu einem modernen Kolonialismus, dem sich viele arme Länder notgedrungen unterwerfen.
Agricultural experts, civil society activists, peasants and politicians condemn the PPP-led coalition government which has given nod to lease out 6m acres of Pakistani land to Gulf-based multinationals.
"We have no choice but to continue leasing and buying land," said Abdullah Al Obaid, head of the strategy unit at the Ministry of Agriculture in Saudi Arabia.
A number of Gulf states have expressed interest in livestock and rice farming in Thailand to secure food supplies, a Thai official said on Monday. "The countries involved could be Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar or the UAE," he added.
Pakistan dramatically increased the amount of farmland open to foreign investors to six million acres, but will require outsiders to share half of their crop with local growers, Pakistan’s investment minister told Reuters.
