These arrangements are reminiscent of “banana republics” when many African countries served as plantations for European countries -- but even those did not come with such explicit restrictions and rigidities.
Las adquisiciones de tierra en África, Asia y Latinoamérica, tal y como se hacen en la actualidad, suponen condenar a los más pobres a ser desalojados de sus fincas o a perder acceso a la tierra, al agua y a otros recursos, según el primer estudio sobre la nueva tendencia de grandes corporaciones y gobiernos de invertir en tierras en países pobres, encargado por las agencias de las Naciones Unidas de la Agricultura y Alimentación y del Desarrollo (FAO y UNDP).
After years of competing for overseas oil and mines, India and China are silently scouring the world for their next great need: farmland to grow food.
The Ernst & Young office in Addis is currently advising several investors from the Middle East, especially Saudi Arabia, who are investing tens of millions of dollars in the agro industry in Ethiopia.
“African countries have not been in a reasonable bargaining position,” AU Agriculture Commissioner Rhoda Peace Tumusiime told Reuters in an interview at AU headquarters in Addis Ababa. “The pace of the trend was very fast and they didn’t envisage that there should be benefits to the community.”
An agricultural investment firm owned by the Saudi government will focus on investing abroad to cultivate mainly wheat, rice, sugar and soybeans, a senior agriculture ministry official said on Monday.
Des États à la recherche d'autonomie alimentaire et des grands groupes louent des millions d'hectares à l'étranger. Christian Bouquet, spécialiste en géopolitique, explique le phénomène.
A group of private Saudi investors plans to invest 375 million riyals to plant wheat, barley and rice in Ethiopia
A consortium of Saudi agricultural companies is looking to invest 150 million riyals ($40 million) into food production in Africa, the Agriculture Ministry said on Sunday.
The truth is that if exploitation of a developing country’s natural resources by the West is colonialism, so it is when rich countries of the South do the same.
"Don’t tell me the Saudis grow food in Ethiopia to feed Ethiopians. Here is the conflict. Food shortage and famine is still rampant in today’s Ethiopia."
"Huge tracts of unutilised agricultural land are available" writes the Ambassador of Ethiopia to the UK