Pakistan

Indus Basin Holdings, a private equity firm incorporated in Mauritius that invests in rice production and dairy farms in Pakistan, has managed to get Britain’s former foreign secretary David Miliband on board as a senior adviser.

United Arab Emirates is interested to cultivate agricultural goods in Pakistan and is also ready to make small dams for irrigation on the condition agricultural goods from Pakistan should not be stopped exporting to UAE.

The China Green company wants to acquire 10,000 acres of farmland in Pakistan on lease to grow fruits and vegetables.

Venture capitalists, merchant bankers and large conglomerates are all piling in.

Hassad Food Company is keen to secure food supplies for Qatar at reasonable prices through local and international investments in various countries, according to an article in the Qatar Chamber of Commerce and Industry memorial book ‘40 Years of Excellence and Achievement.’

Ambassador of Sudan says more than 4,500 square miles are available for farming and agriculture sectors and investors would have the opportunity to bring in skilled workers for farming.

The government of Pakistan has offered 6mn acres of its agricultural land to resourceful countries and multinational companies (MNCs) for corporate farming, corporate sources have said.

Experts urged the Sindh government to consider a few policies, which included supporting small growers, giving state land to landless women and men haris and an immediate end to leasing out land to other countries.

The Government of Pakistan should avoid providing land to the foreign investors and encourage the local small farmers for rapid poverty reduction and food security in the country.

Pakistan is ready to offer free agriculture land to Japanese farmers who lost their crops and land in the March earthquake and tsunami, Tariq Puri, chief executive of the Trade Development Authority of Pakistan said in a meeting with Japanese officials.

Land grabbing in Pakistan has faced stiff resistance in different forms by the members of civil society organizations including farmers’ organizations, Tanveer Arif says.

UAE is ready to build small dams for cultivation on lands they would acquire in Pakistan, provided the government ensures that there is no ban on exports.