South Africa

Congo-Brazzaville offers free irrigation land to South African farmers exclusively for 99 years. Six government farms of 135 000ha in the Niarri Valley and another 10?million hectares have also been made available.

Saudi Arabia intends investing in farming in SA, the Saudi commerce and industry minister, Abdulla Ahmed Zeinal Ali Reza, told a joint economic commission on Monday.

"Over the past four years we have, on Schaffer's behalf, frequently raised concerns about various impediments to the sugar project with many senior Malian officials," reports the US mission in Bamako

Last year South Africa became a net importer of food for the first time in more than 20 years, reigniting concerns about food security and the viability of some farming sectors.

Africa could be the breadbasket for the GCC, providing valuable water and food supplies to the entire region, a Bahraini expert claimed yesterday.

"Jilin and other corporate entities in China are taking major steps to increase the amount of China-controlled soy plantation both in China and around the world," reports the US Consulate in Shenyang

Gulf countries contemplating direct agro-investments in central Asia and Africa should evaluate the relative merit of these investments in comparison to similar potential in Eur-ope and Latin America, the Gulf Research Centre said in a recent report.

As food crisis worsens, some nations are desperate for arable land

In other African countries, including Ghana, South Africa and Togo, the China State Farm and Agribusiness Corporation (CSFAC) has founded 11 agricultural production, processing and sales projects, and runs a total of 16,000 hectares of farmlands