South African group Illovo Sugar has pulled out of a 2.6 billion rand sugar project in Mali, largely due to political risk and also funding difficulties, and will focus on growth opportunities elsewhere in Africa.
Hassad Food Co, the agricultural investment arm of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, may invest 500m euros this year to increase food supplies for the desert emirate, the company’s chairman said.
The government is in the final stages of introducing a Land Authority whose duties, among others, will include dealing with land investments as well as establishment of a land bank and database.
According to the evaluation that the ministry did in the past few weeks, some of the large-scale land acquisitions in Ethiopia are not performing as expected in implementing their projects.
Concerns about land grabbing stem from a desire to hold the government accountable when the drive to make Thailand the Kitchen of the World ends up destroying ecological systems, small farmers' livelihoods, and our food security.
Intensive use of land for food exports and biofuel production must not come at the expense of human rights in Southeast Asia, the United Nations warned.
A pension fund(!) has seeded(!) a new company (i.e., not a fund!) that will invest its own assets as well as those of peers(!) in actual farms(!) in the developed and developing world!
Six foreign-owned companies are currently trying to secure over 1 million hectares (about 2.5 million acres) of land for the production of palm oil in the country's forested southern zone, according to a coalition of environmental organisations.
Investment advisors point to current rise in wheat prices as one more reason to invest in farmland...
U.S agribusiness conglomerate Cargill plans to invest up to US$390 million in a 50,000-hectare oil palm plantation in Cameroon, an official at the Central African nation's investment agency said on state radio.
India's Mahakaushal Sugar and Power Industries has acquired 12,000 ha, and more efforts are being made to acquire an additional 15,000 ha, along Lower Rufiji River basin in Utunge Ward, Tanzania.
The extension of the interdiction to sell agricultural land to foreigners after 2014 is a request that cannot be granted, says the Minister of European Affairs, Leonard Orban.
