At a recent conference in Cairo, South Africa and Zimbabwe were the only African nations not considered safe havens for foreign farmland investment because of uncertainty about land-reform programmes and unfriendly labour environments.
Farmers from South Korea, Kuwait and the United States have also arrived in Kwara state, some 400 km northwest of Lagos, which is keen to attract more investors and help Nigeria end its import reliance.
While Agri SA has been leading a push for South African farmers to invest and farm in a number of other countries across Africa, including the Republic of Congo, Libya and Zambia, the union has urged its members to stay away from countries where South Africa has no investment protection agreements.
Zimbabwe Investments Authority acting chief executive Mrs Elina Karwi said the most basic requirement towards facilitating agriculture-related FDI was making land for agriculture available.
As financiers seek to diversify their fee bases, investment banks are scenting an opportunity in Gulf states’ eagerness to secure long-term food supplies in the form of agricultural investment deals.
Saudi Arabia and the UAE are worldwide leaders in buying farmland in third-party countries, followed by China and Japan, says the World Bank.
When the Kwara State Government invited the displaced Zimbabwean farmers to the state for the Tsonga farming project, many thought it was another white elephant exercise.
Some Laotian farmers are losing their ancestral lands or being forced to become wage workers on what were once their fields
One would expect China to add food crops, or farm land, into its growing number of arrangements with African nations, which could explain part of China’s support for Robert Mugabe in that potential breadbasket, Zimbabwe (one report states that China has already received rights to farm 250,000 acres, or 1,000 square kilometres, of corn in southern Zimbabwe).
