Jordan

Jordan and Kazakhstan are considering a joint venture to produce grain in Kazakh territories to secure the Kingdom's needs at fair prices.

The government is working to attract local and foreign investors to finance the Jordanian agricultural mega-project in Sudan, said a senior official. "One international company has shown interest in taking part in the project so far," the minister told The Jordan Times

The Jordanian government is considering a proposal by a regional private company to participate in a project to invest in Sudanese agricultural land, a senior government official said on Saturday.

"I think it is not right to sell or give your land to foreigners... until you have exhausted every local possibility," said Osama Daoud, chief executive of the Sudanese DAL group which runs large agricultural projects.

Inversores árabes y asiáticos buscan tomar el control de amplias extensiones de tierras fértiles en Sudán, el país más grande de África, que quiere convertirse en el granero de Oriente Medio, aunque para ello deberá modernizar primero su agricultura.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi calls it the “new feudalism.” Groups representing peasant farmers call it “land grabs.” The United Nations literature dispersed at this week's UN food summit in Rome calls it “direct foreign investment.”

"We decided to update a previous feasibility study due to the fact that the prices of food items that will potentially be grown on the project's lands, including fodder and grains, have changed drastically over the past year," Jordan's Agriculture Ministry Secretary General Radhi Tarawneh said

The Sudanese government will take back a plot of land allocated for a Jordanian agricultural megaproject if the government does not implement the project within two weeks

"We have acquired a very large piece of agricultural land in the Nile Delta – a 15,000 sq km tract of land where we will be producing for international markets, including the Arab World."

The government said on Sunday that a draft agreement with the private sector on the stalled Jordanian agricultural megaproject in Sudan is being finalised in order to be sent to the Cabinet for approval.v

Agricultural investment in Sudan by Arab countries looking to guarantee supplies of staples such as wheat for their people will account for up to 50 percent of all investment in the country from 2010

Not a day goes by without new acreage being signed over. "For Sale" ads for agricultural property are now featured in the international financial press. And there's no dearth of clients.