Nitol-Niloy Group and Bhati Bangla Agrotec of Bangladesh aim to invest an initial US$18 million to lease around 40,000 hectares of African land by the end of this year to grow foodstuff, most of which they will be obliged to sell in Bangladesh.
“We frankly told them, we had no land. They insisted we sign a Memorandum of Understating with them, a request we also refused. We only accepted to sign minutes of the meeting we held,” Mr Okasai of Uganda's agriculture ministry said.
If the early reports are anything to go by, the Bangladeshi deals already incorporate many elements that suggest they are being done in a way likely to engender fierce resentment and opposition in the African countries concerned.
Of the produce, 20 percent will go to the government of Uganda, and the remaining will be sent to Bangladesh with a profit of 10 percent plus production cost, says Nitol-Niloy Group
Companies in Bangladesh are planning to lease thousands of hectares of land for agriculture in some African countries. Robert Ziegler, the Director General of the International Rice Research Institute, believes that Bangladesh's food strategy will become more widespread.
Bangladeshi companies say they have leased thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of their efforts to avoid future food shortages.
Bangladesh has leased tens of thousands of hectares of farmland in Africa as part of a government drive to improve food security in the poverty-stricken South Asian nation, an official said on Tuesday
The government of Bangladesh has also been looking for farmland abroad -- in Burma, Kenya, Uganda
The move comes after two fact-finding missions led by the foreign secretary last year found farming in the so-called dark continent "exceedingly lucrative" for Bangladeshi investors.
Land deals, whether as direct purchases or long-term leases, are being brokered in poor countries by advanced capitalist countries and their TNCs
Bangladesh wants to invest in growing rice in Cambodia for future exports back to Bangladesh and has requested long-term land leases for up to 99 years, such as Cambodia has already granted to other countries.
Bangladeshi authorities have started exploring new options to ensure the country's food security such as taking lease of vast areas of fallow agricultural land in the neighbouring Myanmar and in some African states.
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