Pakistan

Pakistan has offered UAE investors an opportunity to invest in corporate farming projects back home as a means to secure the UAE's food supplies.

A conference for fund managers tied to agriculture held annually in Sydney by Austock, an Australian broker, attracted a few dozen contrarian souls three years ago. This year’s event, which began on March 16th, had to be restricted to several hundred ticket-holders, with many others turned away.

The truth is that if exploitation of a developing country’s natural resources by the West is colonialism, so it is when rich countries of the South do the same.

China and the Middle East countries will invest in horticulture sector of Pakistan to the tune of $5 billion during the current year 2009, an official of Agribusiness Support Fund (ASF) said Wednesday.

Perhaps the UN’s hand-wringing is just sentimental. Deals will be done and the rush to buy land has begun in Europe, too.

Investors of State of Qatar have expressed their interest for making investments in agriculture and fisheries sectors in coastal areas of Balochistan, and they will soon set up their industrial, agricultural and trade units in the coastal areas of the province.

With land prices falling, now is a good time for the UAE to acquire farmland in other countries, in order to strengthen food security, a senior official says.

Saudi Arabia and the UAE are worldwide leaders in buying farmland in third-party countries, followed by China and Japan, says the World Bank.

Local farmers have protested against the government’s initiative to invite foreign investors in corporate farming, thus allowing them to take 100 per cent of the yield.

Federal Government is seriously considering to raise 0.1 million police personnel in each province for increasing the security for the investors, Federal Minister of Investment, Senator Waqar Ahmad Khan said at a dinner hosted in honour of ambassadors of Western countries.

For the practical realisation of the goal of food sovereignty that has been eluding our nation since the time of independence, the importance of genuine agrarian reform and peasants’ rights cannot be underestimated.

Senator Waqar said that a new investment policy for the next 10 years is on cards which would be prepared with the consultation of private sector.